The Human Spirit
by Dobby's Socks
Summary: The Doctor and Clara land in Earth's future where people have stopped interacting with each other in favor of surrounding themselves with A.I. systems. As Clara tries to convince Adisa King and her A.I., H.E.I.N., to question the status quo, the Doctor tries to figure out what threat could have possibly caused human society to seclude themselves this way. Post Last Christmas.
1. Chapter 1

**Okay, so I've been kicking this idea around for a while. 12 doesn't seem to get enough love. Also, I haven't gotten to write any Doctor Who fics yet, so here goes my first shot at it. Let me know what you all think!**

 **Dobby's Imaginary Sock**

 **The Human Spirit**

" _ **The human spirit must prevail over technology." - Albert Einstein**_

 **Chapter One:**

 **Life Forms**

He was staring again. Clara wasn't sure if the Doctor realized that she noticed his eyes following her around the TARDIS control room. He had been doing it since they'd returned from almost being eaten alive by giant zooplankton on Zarya IX. She had ignored it at first, thinking that he'd just go ahead and say outright what it was that was bothering him as he usually did. However, he seemed to be biting his tongue for once. Sure, he'd been nicer to her since they'd decided to give each other a second chance, but he was still the rude, unpredictable alien she'd come to know. It was really starting to bother her that he wasn't just saying whatever it was that he wanted to say.

"What is it?" she finally asked him.

The Doctor, not taking his eyes away from the console, began fidgeting with one of the knobs. " _It_ is hardly a specific word, Clara."

"You know exactly what I mean," she stated. Clara walked down the stairs to join him by the console. He refused to make eye-contact. "Something has been bothering you ever since we got back, so just go ahead and say it."

He paused for a minute, staring straight ahead at the time rotor. "Are you certain you don't want me to take you home?" inquired the Doctor, walking around the console. "It has been a while since you saw your family. They could be sitting down for turkey right now, wondering where you've gone off to."

So that was it. Clara rolled her eyes. "I'm not homesick, if that's what you're wondering," she told him. She pulled out her phone and waved it at the Doctor. "I can call my dad anytime that I feel like it. We can keep going."

The Doctor finally walked back over to Clara and faced her. His gaze very stern. "Are you sure?" asked the Doctor.

Clara met his gaze, her face just as serious. "Yes," she replied, "I'm sure. I've got all the time in the world to get back for Christmas. No need to rush it."

The Doctor smirked. "It has been three months in your time, Clara," he stated. "I think we're beyond the point of rushing Christmas."

Clara brushed past him, ignoring his argument. She knew it had been a while since they'd left Earth, but not that it had been that long. Normally she would freak out over a detail like that, but at the moment she just wanted to forget all about home. "Where are we going now?" she inquired, finally looking back at him. She smiled mischieviously at him, placing her hand on one of the many levers on the console. "Is it your pick or mine?"

The TARDIS jolted to life, its engine churning while the lights blinked angrily. Both Time Lord and human stumbled about, the Doctor grabbing onto the central column while Clara gripped a railing for dear life.

"What's happening?!" yelped Clara.

"It appears the TARDIS wishes to remind you that she's also party to our adventures," shouted the Doctor in reply. "You pudding brains always seem to forget that."

"Hey! Don't call me a pudding brain!" yelled Clara, glaring at him indignantly.

"It's only a fact," responded the Doctor nonchalantly. He turned away from Clara and attempted to turn a knob somewhere, failing as the TARDIS rocked him in the opposite direction. "If it makes you feel better you're one of the better ones."

"Oh, that makes me feel _so_ much better," protested Clara, although she couldn't help but smile at the the Doctor's back. The TARDIS then ground to a sudden halt. Clara and the Doctor both tumbled to the floor. They laid there for a moment, listening to the faint whirring of the TARDIS.

"We've stopped," the Doctor finally said from the other side of the console.

Clara massaged her temples. "I know that," she groaned. "Where are we?"

The Doctor pulled himself up and started up the stairs to the door. "I'm not sure. Care to find out?"

"Aren't you going to check the scanner?" questioned Clara.

"No," answered the Doctor, looking at her quizzically. "Why would I do that?"

Clara fixed him in a blank stare. "Planet Maracanda? Remember that one? Didn't check the scanner that time and do you know what happened? We ended up in chained up to rocks. In the desert. Left to die."

The Doctor waved a hand dismissively. "We survived that one," he reminded her. "Scanners are boring. I've got eyes and ears anyways. Now, come on! Let's go have a look."

She shook her head, chuckling a bit as she followed him to the door. Before he opened it, someone knocked once.

"I don't understand," said a girl's voice from outside. "It's really made of wood. How could it have just appeared here?"

Clara exchanged a glance with the Doctor. His eyes were bright with enthusiasm, like a child about to open a gift. He grasped the handle and swung it open.

From the looks of things they had landed inside the lounge of someone's flat. The TARDIS had managed to squeeze herself into a corner next to a large fern in a ceramic pot, probably to show off her superior piloting skills. Apparently the TARDIS had found the only clear spot in the room. Clara wouldn't exactly call the place messy, but there was more clutter lying around on the coffee table, the shelves, and even on the couch then she could tolerate.

"Hmm," mused the Doctor as he stood examining the lumpy leather couch. "It seems that the individuals who live here do a lot of sitting. Not too surprising for 32nd century Earth. A rather dull time period, in my opinion."

"Excuse me," said the girl's voice again. Clara turned around. The girl appeared to be younger than her, but definitely older than most of her students. She was dressed casually in grey jogger bottoms, a long navy cardigan, and a white crop top with some logo that Clara didn't recognize printed across it in graffiti-style lettering.

"Ah, our local knocker," said the Doctor. He also turned to face the girl, his hands clasped behind his back. "Your flat would benefit from a thorough clean-up, but besides that I don't think there's anything else for us to see here. Let's go Clara."

"Doctor-" she started to admonish him. The girl didn't seem insulted by him, but that was most likely due to the fact she was still trying to understand how a police box appeared in her lounge.

"Life forms detected," declared an electronic voice. Clara jumped and started looking for the source of the voice. She didn't see anyone else in the room.

"Life forms?" inquired the girl. She looked back and forth between Clara and the Doctor, her short, brown corkscrew curls bouncing around her face. "Wait, you two are real?"

"Yes, we're real," responded Clara. The Doctor had stopped his retreat and also turned to look at the girl. "Why wouldn't we be real?"

The girl swallowed, moving her hands in a kind of nervous twitch. "I've never met anyone else in my life," she admitted.

 **Thanks for reading! Please review!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Thanks to everyone who has reviewed this story so far! I forgot to attach a disclaimer to the first chapter, so I've written one below. Here's a new update for the weekend.**

 **Dobby's Imaginary Sock**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own anything from the Doctor Who universe.**

 **Chapter Two:**

 **The Recluse and the Robots**

Clara blinked several times before saying, "That's impossible. You would have to meet someone at some point. What about your mum and dad?"

"My what?" asked Adisa, raising an eyebrow.

"Your mum and dad? Parents?" replied Clara. She craned her neck to look behind the girl. Surely she had some photos- or whatever would be the 32nd century equivalent of pictures- of them somewhere.

The girl scuffed her foot on the ground for a minute, avoiding all eye contact, before saying, "Define parents."

Clara would have gawked at her, but instead she jumped as the electronic voice from before again spoke. "Parents: one or two individuals often responsible for the birth of a child and/or act as the child's caretakers until he or she reaches maturity." On hearing the voice a second time, Clara noted that it sounded like a boy. However, she still couldn't identify where the voice was coming from.

"I don't have those," the girl stated quietly. "At least, I don't remember having any parents. Can't think of anyone on the forums mentioning parents either."

Clara was beginning to feel exasperated. "You can't just have popped up out of nowhere!" she argued. "Isn't that right, Doctor?"

"I wouldn't necessarily say so," responded the Doctor with a shrug. "I came across a planet once where new generations were born from DNA samples fed through a machine. Never mind that, though." He held up a hand to stop her from asking about whatever planet that was. She hated when he did that. "It seems you do have some sort of friend here. Where is he? I'd rather like to meet him. He is a him, correct?"

"Um… come out, I guess," said the girl.

At first, it was as if the room she saw before herself were really just a reflection in still water and someone had dropped a pebble in it. Then Clara noticed that what she was seeing was not a ripple, but rather hundreds - maybe thousands- of what appeared to be tiny beads rolling to the center of the floor next to the girl. They began to assemble themselves and within minutes had taken on the appearance of a boy around the same age as the girl.

Only they- he- it- didn't look like a normal boy. The boy was entirely silver in color and had the simplest of facial features. Clara wasn't entirely sure if he'd fall apart if she touched him, for she could see the beads from which he'd appeared.

"Fascinating!" exclaimed the Doctor, his eyes wide and bright. "What do I call you?"

"I am H.E.I.N.," said the boy with a large smile on his face.

"Right, I won't remember that," responded the Doctor. Clara groaned to herself.

"I identify as male," continued the boy. Clara was amazed to see his mouth working like a real human mouth. She wondered how the boy was even making sound.

"His name stands for Human Engineered Interactive Nexus," interrupted the girl. She blushed and wrapped her arms tightly around herself. "I came up with it myself."

"I see," responded the Doctor, walking around the boy. "Incredible. I suppose he is an artificial intelligence interface. These are nanoids, I gather."

The girl beamed. "Yeah, they are," she replied.

So that was what the bead-like things were, noted Clara. They sounded like some type of robot. No wonder the Doctor was so excited. The girl started talking quickly, clearly excited about these nanoids, too. Clara smiled and shook her head.

"They aren't the best ones on the market, but I was able to get a bulk shipment of these nanoids for a bargain price. Had to do a few altercations to get the electromagnetic linkings to work correctly. I downloaded H.E.I.N.'s operating system from his old interface into the nanoids and then programed them to respond to vocal promptings and take on larger forms."

"Marvelous," stated the Doctor, drawing in closer to look at the AI.

"Can he take on _any_ form?" inquired Clara, finally finding a point to hop into the conversation.

The girl scratched her cheek. "Yeah," she answered. "I mean, if he can look up an image of the form online, then he can become it."

"He could become a cat then?" asked Clara.

The nanoids began to disassemble themselves and reformed into the much smaller and compact form of a cat. "Of course I can," said the A.I., wagging its tail back and forth. "Adisa is a clever girl."

"That's your name?" questioned Clara.

Adisa nodded. "Yeah, Adisa King."

"I'm Clara Oswald," stated Clara. "This is the Doctor."

The Doctor did not even wave or nod his head in acknowledgement as he was far too busy trying to scan the nanoid cat with his sonic screwdriver.

"Doctor!" called out Clara.

"What?" he inquired.

Clara leaned forward. "Say hello."

"Er… hello?" he tried. The Doctor then promptly went back to scanning the cat.

"Never mind him," said Clara, shaking her head. "Before you ask, he's always like that."

"Always like what?" asked Adisa. "Is there something wrong with him? I could have H.E.I.N. perform a medical scan."

"No, it's nothing medically wrong!" retracted Clara, waving her hands. She should have realized that Adisa probably wouldn't notice anything wrong about his behavior since she'd apparently never met another living being before. "It's just… it's just him being him. Most people don't act like that."

"Oh," replied Adisa. "Are there more people in the box?"

"I'm afraid not," responded Clara with a smile. "Just the Doctor and me."

She looked over at the alien. He was trying to lure H.E.I.N. out from behind the couch. Clara stopped smiling, though, for what Adisa had said earlier was still bothering her. "Were you being serious earlier when you said that you had never met anyone else in your life?"

"Uh, yeah. Yeah I was," repeated the girl, shuffling her feet uncomfortably. "I don't think anyone else has met other people face-to-face either."

"You've talked to other people though some medium," said the Doctor.

"Through the web, yeah," replied Adisa. "There's loads of people to chat with through the screen."

Adisa gestured towards a room behind her. Both Clara and the Doctor peered around the girl. From the look of things it appeared as if the visible wall of this back room was covered entirely by what looked like a flat screen television.

"Does it work like a computer?" questioned Clara.

"Clara, by the 32nd century humanity is beyond computers," scoffed the Doctor.

"Well, how was I to know that?" retorted Clara.

"Sorry," apologized the Doctor, shifting his weight from one foot to the other. At least he was trying to be nice. "That screen is capable of performing the functions of any media device from the 21st century and at a fraction of the speed. I'm sure H.E.I.N. here could form a screen as well should he choose to."

Once again the nanoids reconstituted themselves, this time as a flat rectangle on the wall. Light appeared in the center and then what looked like the home screen of a computer. "That is correct," stated H.E.I.N. cheerfully. "I am capable of contacting life forms external to this unit."

"This unit," repeated Clara. "There are people in the adjacent units then."

"That is also correct," affirmed the A.I. "There are one hundred units in this building."

"Why don't you pop over and say hello?" asked Clara.

Adisa looked shocked by this suggestion. "Why would I?"

Clara took a step back. She hadn't been expecting that response. "Don't you want to meet other people?" she inquired. "It's a good way to make friends."

"I already have friends," responded Adisa. "I chat with other people online, plus I have H.E.I.N. here. Couldn't ask for a better friend. I don't really _need_ to go meet other people."

That last bit made Clara feel as if someone had thrown a bucket of ice water on her. Adisa perfectly accepted the fact that she was alone. She probably would have been fine with the fact that she'd never meet any of her web friends face-to-face. Clara couldn't understand it. She found human interaction to be extremely important. The future seemed to have judged differently, and this decision scared her.

"Surely you must be curious, though," interceded the Doctor. "There's a door right here. Why don't we go outside?"

The Doctor strode over to the far corner to what appeared to be the front door. He grabbed the handle and gave a pull.

The door did not budge.

"Clara, can you give this a try?" he asked politely as possible for him.

She sighed and walked over to the door. Clara pressed down on the latch and pulled the handle but failed to open the door just like the Doctor. She put both hands on the handle and tugged with all of her might. Pushing against the door didn't do any good either.

"It's not opening," she told him.

The Doctor gave an annoyed huff and waved her aside. He tried bracing a foot against the wall and then leaning back with his full weight. Still it did not move.

"This is a rather uncooperative door," he stated. "Maybe it's locked."

"You didn't check if it's locked?" asked Clara in disbelief. This fact shouldn't have really surprised her. After all, three versions of him together in one room hadn't bothered to check a locked door. Why should anything have changed?

The Doctor pulled out the sonic and pointed it at the door. It whirred, but after several seconds Clara didn't hear the usual unlocking noise that typically accompanied this action. The Doctor frowned and hit the sonic against his palm. He started playing with the settings, pointing the sonic at the door in between each adjustment. There was no change.

"Perhaps it's not a real door," said the Doctor with a scowl, pocketing the sonic.

"It is a door," declared H.E.I.N., causing all three individuals to look back at the A.I. on the wall. "Floor plans for the building indicate it as an opening to the hallway beyond."

"Can you open the door, H.E.I.N.?" questioned Adisa, walking up to the A.I.

"Negative," replied H.E.I.N. sadly. "I was not programed with that capability."

Adisa blushed in embarrassment. "I've never thought of opening that door," she admitted. "He's programed to open the other doors in my place, but I'll have to see if extra commands are needed for that one."

The Doctor waved a hand. "Don't bother with that. I'll just take the TARDIS."

"The what?" asked Adisa.

"The TARDIS is the blue box," explained Clara. "And what do you mean by 'I'?"

"You stay here with Reclusive Rhonda-"

"Her name is Adisa!"

"And Mr. Cheerful," finished the Doctor as he stepped a foot into the TARDIS. "It should only take a few seconds unless there's something dangerous out there, which could very well be the case."

"I'm not just staying here!" protested Clara, crossing her arms in front of her chest. "What are you going to do if it's dangerous out there? Yell for help while we're trapped behind a door?"

"Um, how is the box going to get to the other side of my door?" questioned Adisa, looking very perplexed.

The Doctor grinned slightly. "Watch."

He shut the doors of the TARDIS.

"Doctor!" yelled Clara, running over to the TARDIS. She could hear the engines starting up and the dematerialization process beginning. "Doctor!"

The noise suddenly stopped with what sounded like a thump while the light on top ceased flashing. She heard him attempt to start the TARDIS two more times. The TARDIS, however, didn't disappear.

The Doctor reemerged from the TARDIS, his hair sticking out more wildly than usual. "What is the matter with you?" he questioned the TARDIS furiously. "You bring me here and now you won't even help me go outside! What is the point of it all?!"

"Maybe the TARDIS can't get to the other side?" suggested Clara. "It has happened before."

"Yes, but there's usually some sign of a temporal anomaly," spat the Doctor, his annoyance at the situation very obvious. He looked over at Adisa. She wasn't paying them any attention, being too preoccupied with examining the exterior of the TARDIS. The Doctor pulled Clara towards the door and spoke in a low voice. "There's something odd about this place."

"No kidding," muttered Clara.

"I don't always remember everything about a planet, but I am certain that the denizens of Earth never sequestered themselves like this."

Clara leaned in closer to the Doctor. "What are we going to do about it?"

"I'm going to try to build an x-ray device to see through the door. I'll also have the TARDIS pull up the archives on 32nd century Earth. Maybe she'll find something that I've forgotten."

"Okay."

The Doctor motioned his head over at Adisa. "Could you talk to our young acquaintance and her A.I.? See if there's anything more that they can tell you about the external world."

"Alright. Just don't take too long."

OoO

In a dark room elsewhere on Earth someone had noticed the sudden arrival of this Doctor and Clara. They watched the strange wide-eyed girl and her even stranger friend talk to Adisa King on a large screen. This interaction was unplanned, and they didn't like abnormalities. Abnormalities created chaos, which would only hinder their progress. They wouldn't allow this incident to destroy all of their work on this planet. This threat would have to be diagnosed and eliminated.

"Running inquiry. Key words: Doctor, Clara, TARDIS."

 **Please review!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Hello everyone! Thanks so much for all the support for this story! It's wonderful hearing from all of you and encourages me to write even more! Thankfully, I've gotten some time to sit down and work on the next couple of chapters. Enjoy!**

 **The Imaginary Sock**

 **Chapter Three:**

 **Strange New World**

"What's your friend doing?" asked Adisa after the Doctor stepped into the TARDIS and closed the door.

"Oh, he's just working on something to deal with the door," replied Clara. "It'll probably be boring."

"Really? I think that sounds cool."

Of course she would, thought Clara. This was the girl who had basically rebuilt tiny nanoids to do whatever she wanted them to do. Even so, the Doctor probably didn't want to be disturbed at the moment. That, or he didn't quite trust Adisa yet. Clara suspected the latter. She would have to come up with something to keep them busy.

"So, what do you do for fun besides reprograming robots?"

"Well, I chat online-"

"I think you've mentioned that already." She regretted it immediately. Apparently the Doctor's rudeness was starting to rub off on her.

Adisa blushed. "Oh sorry…" she mumbled.

They stood around in silence for a while. The nanoids slid off the wall, and H.E.I.N. reformed himself into his humanoid form. He walked over to the door and began examining it more closely. Clara racked her brain for some topic of conversation, even though Adisa seemed content enough to stand around in silence. She scanned the titles of books on the tables until one caught her eye. Clara felt a tightness in her chest.

"You're a fan of maths, I take it," she stated, unable to take her eyes away from the textbook.

"Huh?" replied Adisa. She then looked down at the same book. "Oh yeah, I am. Math and physics are my favorite subjects in school."

"They still have school here, then?" asked Clara. "Do you take all of your classes off of that screen, too?"

"Yeah, I do. I suppose everyone else does as well."

"Are you the only one in your class?" inquired Clara. She knew from experience that one-on-one instruction could be very effective, but that hardly seemed efficient on a large scale. Plus, she imagined it would be boring. Clara could remember falling asleep in her biology class, even though she had her friend Lauren sitting next to her. If she'd been by herself, she probably wouldn't have learned anything.

"Yes, just me," responded Adisa. "H.E.I.N. sometimes sits with me while I'm having my lessons, but he already knows everything so he's mostly just company. Plus, I have to worry about him spoiling the endings to my favorite books."

"Snape kills Dumbledore," the A.I. announced proudly.

Clara couldn't help but laugh a bit. Adisa exchanged a confused look with H.E.I.N. who shrugged. "Sorry," Clara apologized. "I grew up with that book series. It's just funny seeing that people still consider that spoiling it."

"You grew up around when Harry Potter was written!" exclaimed Adisa, her eyes wide. "But that would make you over a thousand years old!"

"Well, I didn't just live through that whole time," explained Clara. "The TARDIS can travel not only through space, but also time. I actually came here from my gran's house. We were celebrating Christmas and-"

"Your gran?"

"Oh, my gran is my grandmother. My dad's mother," elaborated Clara. She felt her throat constrict a bit. She hadn't let her thoughts dwell on her gran since leaving with the Doctor, so she hadn't realized how much she missed her.

"So she's your parent's parent," said Adisa.

"Exactly," replied Clara.

H.E.I.N. focused his eyes on a blank space of wall. Two beams of light were projected from his eyes, creating two overlapping ovals on the wall. Inside the field of light was text in a type of diagram. Clara saw her own name at the bottom, and connected to it above were the words 'Mum' and 'Dad'. 'Dad' was then connected to the word 'Gran' written above it.

"Ancient human beings called these social units families," stated H.E.I.N., his eyes never blinking. "A diagram such as this is referred to as a family tree."

"If I had my whole family on here, it would keep spreading out farther and farther," added Clara. "I could add my other grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins-"

"That's so many people," breathed Adisa. She appeared to be in some state of awe as she examined the family tree on the wall. "Do you know all of them?"

"No," admitted Clara. "Some of my cousins live quite far away and my gran is the oldest living member of my family. I do know other people, though, who are not part of my family."

"Your friends?" guessed Adisa.

"Yes, and my students. I am a teacher where I come from."

"A teacher," defined H.E.I.N., "Is an individual employed in the education of younger or less informed members of society. Teachers work in buildings called schools."

"Everyone goes to school together?" questioned Adisa, hugging her arms around her. It appeared to be one of her many nervous gestures, noted Clara. "Isn't that distracting? How would I ask my questions if everyone else had questions?"

"It's not so bad," Clara reassured her, placing a hand on her shoulder. Adisa slid uncomfortably away. Clara noted not to try that gesture again, for it appeared to unnerve the girl. H.E.I.N. gave Clara an apologetic smile and then walked over to Adisa, placing his own hand on her shoulder. The girl relaxed and looked much calmer. "For the most part, students listen quietly when I teach. As for questions, I try to take as many questions as I can from all of my students. If any of them need more help, then they can come ask me after school in the classroom."

"Okay," responded Adisa, although Clara could still sense a hint of doubt in her voice. "I don't know if I'd like that."

"I guess it must seem pretty strange to you," mused Clara aloud. "To me, your world seems pretty strange, but I suppose it's because I don't live in it." She remembered what the Doctor had asked her to do before going inside the TARDIS. "How do you lot make decisions as a society?"

"Like a government structure?" asked Adisa. "I'm not very familiar with how it all works, but I think there's some kind of voting that passes through the Mainframe."

"What's the Mainframe?" questioned Clara. It sounded like something the Doctor would be interested in.

"The Mainframe is a supercomputer through which all earthlings communicate. It also maintains the programs that create all artificial intelligence systems, such as myself," answered H.E.I.N., switching the diagram he was projecting. The new diagram was much more thorough than the last. It had a similar shape with the Mainframe at the top as a kind of distant ancestor while there were several smaller computers and other things which Clara assumed were software programs listed on the expanding branches below it. H.E.I.N.'s name was listed at the bottom. "I am approximately twenty-three percent Mainframe programming."

"I guess everyone except me has some kind of family tree," stated Adisa sadly. "I never really thought about how I got here before."

"I'm sure the answer is out there somewhere," said Clara, giving the girl her most reassuring smile. "Maybe this Mainframe knows."

"The Mainframe may have records on your origins," mentioned H.E.I.N. earnestly. "Would you like me to search the database?"

"Wow, that would be great!" exclaimed Adisa. She bit her lip. "That won't cause you too much trouble, will it?"

"I may need to power down for a while, depending on how many records I go through," admitted the A.I. with a shrug. "I don't mind that, though. It seems to be important to you, so it is important to me, too."

Clara found that to be rather sweet, which was weird considering he was an artificial intelligence interface. Every science fiction novel she had ever read portrayed artificial intelligence as cold and calculating. Of course, she knew there was most likely some kind of exception out there. If Daleks could turn good and Sontarans could be nurses, then there was no reason an A.I. couldn't have feelings.

"So, you'll look it up," prompted Clara.

"Of course!" replied H.E.I.N., stopping the projection. "Running inquiry. Family tree of Adisa King. Searching records database."

The A.I. remained silent for several minutes after this, although Clara felt as if she could feel all of his energy being put into this search. Adisa appeared to be holding her breath. The girl leaned in with her eyes focused entirely on H.E.I.N. as if her stare alone could cause him to find the answer faster.

"Found," he finally stated. Clara felt her own breath catch in her throat. Adisa appeared ready to fall over onto her face. He smiled, his demeanor turning bubbly. "You have one new message from Knightwalker333!"

Clara's mouth drop open. "I thought you were looking for Adisa's records!"

Adisa staggered backward for a second before catching her footing. "Sorry, he does that," she mumbled, her face once again red from embarrassment. "The algorithm probably ran too long and he got interrupted by another request. Knightwalker333 is one of my friends."

"Okay," said Clara. "What does Knightwalker333 want?"

"I dunno," responded Adisa. She turned to H.E.I.N. "Open Knightwalker333's message."

"Of course!" exclaimed the A.I. with a smile. "Hello, Nova153!"

"That's me," explained Adisa, shooting Clara a side glance.

"I'm starting a game of Galaxy Racers. Do you want to remote into the game? Passcode is 8675309."

"Ooh, I love Galaxy Racers!" squealed Adisa. She then looked over at Clara and blushed. "Sorry, it's my favorite game."

"No need to apologize!" protested Clara. Just when it seemed like Adisa would break out of her shell, she had retreated once again. Clara hoped she wouldn't have to keep egging the girl on all day. Goodness knew she already did enough of that with her students. "What is Galaxy Racers all about?"

"It's the best! Galaxy Racers is a racing game with different vehicles based on the terrain because there's, like, thirty different settings to start with and around five hundred once you've unlocked all of the secret levels-" started Adisa. She bit her lip. "Do you want to play?"

"Er… sure? Sounds like fun." Clara followed Adisa into the back room. Maybe playing a game with Adisa would help reveal more about the current state of the Earth. At least it would kill some time while the Doctor was working on whatever gadget he was surely building in the TARDIS.

OoO

The x-ray goggles were simple enough to design, initial plans only taking up a small corner of his blackboard. Not that he really needed the plans, but this face was apparently very fond of visual representations. That and talking aloud to himself, which was the current activity in which the Doctor was engaged.

"32nd century," he said, pulling the monitor to face him. "What do we have on Earth in the 32nd century?"

He began to carefully gather the parts he would need for the goggles on his workbench as the TARDIS conducted her search. No need to litter the floor with endless knickknacks and doodads. The Doctor was neater this time around. Well, a little bit neater. Neat enough to allow maximum room for books, pacing, and scribbling with chalk.

The TARDIS made a beeping noise, causing the Doctor to look up at the monitor. "I know this century is boring, but you must have something more than the weather reports from 3166!" he grumbled. "Humanity should be learning and growing! Spreading out! Exploring the universe! They're well past the point of first contact with extraterrestrial species recognized by the general public. Ships should be coming and going from this planet, so why is humanity sitting at home like a sack of potatoes?!" He sat down on the stairs, leaning his head on his hand. "I don't remember this. Of course there are things even I forget, but I would have remembered this. This is important, this is… unnatural."

The TARDIS hummed sadly and dimmed the lights a bit. She pulled up some news reports on election results and interstellar tariffs as she continued her search. He stood up and walked back to the workbench on the lower level. There was no point in just sitting there sulking. He would just have to give the TARDIS time.

The Doctor smirked as he worked on fitting a tungsten anode. Perhaps this century wouldn't prove as boring as he first thought. "51st century motor tech should do the trick. Unless the 32nd century is the new 51st as far as technology goes. I'll have to ask someone about that some time. It should be able to take on a door at the least." He finished the last of his adjustments on the x-ray goggles and fixed them onto his head. The Doctor flipped a switch on the side of the goggles and looked at one of the compartments surrounding the central column behind him. He could see the various pipes and wires the compartment typically hid from plain sight, which was a good sign. Good enough that he was willing to take the goggles out for a test run. Before stepping outside he checked the monitor again. She had added a lot of text from chat rooms to the other information she'd found earlier. "When will these pudding brains stop making so much excess noise on the internet? I don't need to know their opinion on time lapses in the self-replenishing of food in fridges. Throw that bit out. Focus on the chat room filters. Someone out there must know something."

 **Please Review!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Hello everyone! I am back with another chapter! Thanks again to everyone who has reviewed, favorited, or added this story to their alerts. I hope you all enjoy the new chapter!**

 **Dobby's Imaginary Sock**

 **Chapter Four:**

 **Sustaining Humanity**

Adisa offered Clara a pair of gloves and what looked like a motorbike helmet with a dark visor. "Do you know what virtual reality is?"

"Yes, I'm vaguely familiar with it," replied Clara, examining the gloves and helmet. The items appeared to be normal as far as she could tell.

"Okay, so Galaxy Racers is run through a virtual reality system," explained Adisa. She held her right hand up. "Your right hand is used for selecting things like your vehicle or picking up stars on the path. The stars give you extra points that can help you win the game. Oh, also watch out for traps on the path. There are some pre-set, but other players can set them, too."

"Alright. How do we start?"

"Put on the gloves and helmet," said Adisa. "There's a mic and speakers in the helmet, so we'll be able to talk to each other."

"Okay," stated Clara. She pulled the gloves on and tightened the straps on them to better fit her hands. Clara looked over at Adisa. The girl already had her helmet on.

"Do you need help?" inquired Adisa.

"Will this fit?"

"I believe it should," responded Adisa. "That helmet has interior molding that adjusts to fit the head size. I made it so that H.E.I.N. could play in different forms. He's not as good at this as I am, so he's always changing his face so that he has bug eyes or cat's ears because he thinks it would help. It doesn't, in case you were wondering."

Clara flashed her a smile and then pulled the helmet over her head, engulfing her vision in darkness. The helmet was big at first, but then it made a whirring noise and as Adisa said the inside began to move. Soon it fit her snugly like her motorbike helmet at home. "So how do I turn the game-" Clara began to ask, but suddenly instead of seeing the darkness from moments before she could see both herself and Adisa, "on."

They were in what appeared to be a room so large that she couldn't see the walls or the ceiling. Hovering over the grey floor below their feet was what looked like two screens lit up with the images of people. The first picture contained an image of Adisa while the second was the smiling face of H.E.I.N., their names printed underneath the respective picture.

"Are you okay playing as H.E.I.N.?" asked Adisa. "I could try to create a guest avatar if you'd like."

"It's fine," responded Clara. She reached her right hand forward and touched H.E.I.N.'s picture. "So both people and A.I.s play these games."

"Yeah," replied Adisa, selecting her picture. The two images vanished and were replaced by what looked to be hundreds of vehicles. Adisa scuffed her foot against the ground. "I got a bit carried away after a few months of playing. Ended up hacking it and creating some additional vehicles."

"No kidding," breathed Clara. She walked forward towards the vehicles. "I can choose any one of them."

"Yeah," said Adisa again. She hopped into a yellow go-kart. "This one's my favorite. Do you see one that you want to drive?"

She looked around the room and then spotted a black and red motorbike a couple rows away. "I think I do," Clara stated with a smile. "Would driving a motorbike here be the same as in real life?"

"Um… I guess? I haven't driven in real life. Can't imagine what that would do to my apartment."

"Right," agreed Clara. "Never been outdoors. Obviously you've never driven. I guess I'll just have to figure it out as I go, although I don't know how I'll be able to shift gears without some kind of a foot sensor."

"The helmet controller should be able to sense it from your brain waves-"

"It can read my mind?!" interrupted Clara.

"Sort of? It can read electronic pulses calling for certain actions," elaborated Adisa. "It's how we're able to walk around in here without running into the walls of my place."

"Right," replied Clara, shifting uncomfortably. She sat on the bike and placed her hands on the handle bar.

"Are you ready to play?" questioned Adisa.

"As ready as I'll ever be," stated Clara. She held onto the clutch and shifted the bike into first gear, riding it slowly over to Adisa's go-kart. "Let's go."

Adisa reached out in front of her. A small screen appeared with letters and a Play button on it. The girl entered the passcode she received from her friend and then selected play. Immediately the room faded into white light. Clara sat on the motorbike blinking at the brightness. Just as quickly as the last room faded a new place appeared. It looked like a large jungle with a dirt path passing through the middle of the trees. A wave of heat hit her in the face and a symphony of animal noises exploded in her ears. It was overwhelming and all too real.

"Right," muttered Clara her voice not betraying how unsure she felt. "Just like Mario Kart."

"Mario what?" inquired a new voice.

Clara turned to find the source of the new voice. There was a boy wearing a helmet identical to both hers and Adisa's standing on a hovering skateboard behind her. Next to him on a small all-terrain vehicle sat a short robot. "Oh, it's just a game that I played back at home."

"Nova153, who is this?" questioned the robot, tilting its head. From its higher voice she would hazard to guess that the robot was a girl. "I thought H.E.I.N. was playing with us."

"H.O.P.E., this is Clara," said Adisa, gesturing at her. "She's, um, a visitor."

"What do you mean a visitor?" asked the boy. "Did you hack the system again to remote her into the system?"

"No, she is literally a visitor," explained Adisa. "She is in my game room with me playing Galaxy Racers."

Both the boy and the robotic girl paused. Then they began talking simultaneously.

"But where did she come from?!"

"How did she get inside?"

"Does H.E.I.N. know about this?"

"You're not scared of her?"

"Hello? I'm right here," interrupted Clara tersely. The robot girl shrunk behind the boy.

"Sorry, H.O.P.E. gets carried away sometimes," apologized the boy, wringing his gloved hands. He jerked a thumb at the aforementioned H.O.P.E. who was still hiding behind him. "H.O.P.E. is the A.I. interface at my place. I'm Knightwalker333."

"Nice to meet you," replied Clara, waving at him. She leaned in towards Adisa. "Why does H.O.P.E. look so different from H.E.I.N.? Is she a different kind of A.I.?"

"H.O.P.E. is installed into a standard robotic body," replied Adisa simply. "H.E.I.N. had one until I installed him into his new form. Not everyone wants to take the time to work with nanoids."

"Okay," said Clara. "Why do they call you Nova153? I know that's your gamer name or whatever you lot call it, but wouldn't it be simpler to use each other's first names?"

Adisa sat there silently for a moment, apparently needing the time to think it over. "I suppose it would be," she admitted. "I never even thought about asking him what his real name is."

"Why don't you do it now?"

Adisa shook her head. "That would be embarrassing! Neither of us are the most… social of people."

"Right," stated Clara as she watched Knightwalker333 shooting side glances at her and then looking away at the trees. "I could ask him for you, if you'd like."

"Please don't!" begged Adisa.

"Alright, alright," conceded Clara with a slight smirk. "Don't blame me if you never find out. Is anyone else playing?"

"Is anyone else playing?" Adisa inquired, directing Clara's question at Knightwalker333.

"I asked RubixCubix5 if she wanted to join, but she was too busy checking ThoughtStream."

"Is that some kind of social media outlet like Twitter?" questioned Clara.

"Where did you find her?" questioned H.O.P.E., peeking out from behind Knightwalker333 finally. "She's funny. Twitter hasn't been used popularly since the mid-twenty-first century."

"The Doctor will be glad to hear that one," muttered Clara. "So, your friend is some kind of social media addict?"

"Addict is an understatement," sighed Knightwalker333.

"She's always talking to at least six people at the same time," stated Adisa.

"She completely ignores her A.I.," added H.O.P.E., putting a hand on the side of her helmet. "Poor H.A.L.I. didn't even have a name until we gave her one."

"She's too busy pretending to be popular to notice anything going on at her place," continued Adisa. "I don't know why she feels like she can't stop faking it and get off of ThoughtStream for a few minutes."

Knightwalker333 fidgeted uncomfortably with his gloves when Adisa mentioned RubixCubix5's fibs. She raised an eyebrow and made a mental note to ask him about it when she had the chance. The boy might be Adisa's friend, but she would still operate by her friend the Doctor's rules: trust no one and nothing that you see.

"Anyhow, shall we start the game now?" asked Knightwalker333, moving his board to the starting line.

"Sounds good to me!" exclaimed Adisa, driving over to him. "Are you ready, Clara?"

Clara rode her bike up to the line. "I think I have it all figured out."

"I am ready as well," said H.O.P.E. as she pulled up next to Clara.

"Okay," stated Knightwalker333. The words Start Game appeared in front of him in a yellow rectangle, which the boy touched. Clara heard a bell go off in the background. A checkered flag appeared in front of the four players along with a countdown. When the countdown reached zero, the flag waved. "Go, go, go!"

With that, they were all off into the jungle.

OoO

Clara and the resident hermit were gone by the time he reemerged from the TARDIS. Not that he minded that the room was empty. It would be easier to get things done. Plus, Clara wouldn't berate him for forgetting the hermit's name again.

The Doctor ran into the coffee table and several stacks of books as he walked across the front room with the goggles on. "Really should have taken these off before stepping out of the TARDIS. Smart move, Doctor," he muttered darkly to himself as he rubbed his left shin. He pulled them off and made his way to the door, giving it a quick tug to make certain it was still sealed. The door didn't budge.

"Alright," he said to no one. "Time to see what's outside. Could be anything really. Giant worms, cannibals, mutinous robots, swine flu…" He pulled the goggles on again and pressed a button on the side to focus his vision.

He couldn't see anything besides the stupid door.

If he were honest with himself, he would admit that he was dumbfounded. The Doctor decided it would be best to next check to see if they were working anywhere in the flat. He looked at the back room, noticing now that its door, too, was closed. However, he could see inside this room. Clara and the hermit appeared to be playing some kind of a game, although the giant screen on the wall didn't appear to be projecting anything.

He realized with a start that the goggles seem to fail on that wall as well. The Doctor then moved around the perimeter of the room, stopping now and again to gaze at the wall. Any wall that faced an area outside of the flat somehow blocked the x-ray goggles' vision.

"Oh come on!" cried out the Doctor crossly. "This is ridiculous! What could be so secret, so bad that I can't see the outside?"

He yanked the goggles off and rested his back against the door. "Why would anyone bother shielding walls from x-ray goggles? The pudding brain here doesn't seem the least bit curious about outside, clever as she may be. No one appears to be asking the right questions! There's no need to hide anything!"

He balled his free hand into a fist and hit it against the door. "Think, Doctor," he mumbled. "This should be no big deal. A world that doesn't make sense. Been there before only several hundred times. And someone is keeping everyone indoors. Captives, but willingly so. They don't seem bothered by it or scared. Probably not the Daleks running this, then. Can't always be them."

The Doctor frowned. "It is from the outside, though. I might not be able to see out there, but you can, can't you H.E.I.N.?" asked the Doctor, his voice increasing in volume as he called out the A.I.'s name.

Nanoids rolled across the floor to assemble themselves into the A.I.'s humanoid form. The A.I. smiled at him. "Is there something I can help you with?"

"We need to talk," said the Doctor flatly.

OoO

It had taken a little while for Clara to get accustomed to the motorbike. She'd fallen behind the other players a while ago, but the game itself wasn't too complicated. The stars on the path were easy enough to pick up, and she had even figured out that tapping her hand twice on the handlebar allowed her to leave traps for the other players. All she really needed was a good occasion to use one of those items. To her, it seemed like she'd been riding around aimlessly for a long time without seeing anyone. Clara wasn't even sure if the path was straight like in Mario Kart.

She suddenly heard a yelp from somewhere in front of her. The yelp was followed quickly by a thud and the rustling of leaves. Clara sped up.

The trees opened up into a clearing where Knightwalker333 sat entangled in a net, his board a couple meters away. She rode her bike over to him and skidded to a stop. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," replied the boy, trying to fight his way through the net. "I think Nova153 must have left this trap here for one of us. She can be tricky like that. Not that I'd do anything differently. Probably should have suspected it."

"Do you need help?" inquired Clara.

The boy fought the net a few seconds more before admitting defeat. "That would be great. Could you grab my board for me?"

Clara rode over to the board and picked it up. It was covered in a pattern of primarily green scales with some other earth tones thrown into it. She knew it reminded her of something. Before she could think more about it, she heard a clicking noise behind her.

She turned her motorbike around and saw Knightwalker333 standing up. "The net was on a one minute timer," explained the boy as he brushed himself off. He shook his foot to disentangle it from the now open net. "Thought I could get it off, but apparently I was wrong."

Clara rode over and handed him his board. "Here you go."

Knightwalker333 took the board from her. He then asked her, "Why did you help me?"

"I like helping people," replied Clara. "Most people say 'thanks' when someone helps them."

"Oh, uh, thanks!" stammered the boy. He stood on his board and it lifted off of the ground. "If you'd like, you could follow me on a short cut. We might be able to catch up to Nova153."

"Alright then," agreed Clara. Perhaps Knightwalker333 could tell her things that Adisa could not. The boy rode ahead of her through the clearing and then turned a sharp left into the trees. Clara was at first hesitant to follow him, fearing the roots of the trees would throw her off her bike, but she was pleasantly surprised to find another path hidden between the trees. She sped up to catch up with the boy. "Her name is Adisa, by the way."

"What?" inquired Knightwalker333, glancing at her over his shoulder.

"Nova153," said Clara. "Her name is Adisa. She mentioned that you two had never even exchanged names."

"You mean our real names?" questioned the boy. It sounded like he choked on the question. "Yeah, I guess we didn't. Honestly, most people don't. I don't really see the point of real names." He sped up and rode a good distance ahead of her.

"Er, sorry? Did I offend you?" asked Clara. She cleared a large bump in the middle of the path. "I didn't mean to. It's just that where I'm from people generally exchange first names."

The boy slowed down a bit. "No, I'm not offended," he replied. "I'm just not used to someone asking something so… personal about me."

"Okay," stated Clara.

They rode in silence for a little while before the boy spoke again. "My name is Elik."

"That's a lovely name," stated Clara.

"You really think so?!" asked the boy, sounding extremely surprised.

Clara was very confused. "Yes, I do. Why wouldn't I?"

"Well… um… you see, it's just that I've never told anyone my name before," he stammered. "I thought it would give me away."

"Give you away?" asked Clara. She ducked her head under a low-hanging tree branch.

Elik took a deep breath, as if he were about to tell her something very important. He stopped moving forward, so Clara stepped hard on the brake. "Elik is a Silurian name."

Clara now remembered what, or rather who, his board had reminded her of: Madam Vastra. Still, she couldn't fathom why being a Silurian would be so bad. "So?"

"So?!" exclaimed the boy. "What if she's human or a Sea Devil or some other kind of Silurian who doesn't like me?" blurted out the boy. His entire body was shaking now. "I've read a lot of history texts and we haven't all exactly gotten along in the past. There have been some pretty bad wars. I haven't told Nova153… Adisa about me because I was afraid she wouldn't want to be friends anymore."

Clara shook her head. "I don't know Adisa very well," she admitted, "but I can say that she wouldn't hate you just because of what you look like."

Knightwalker333 looked up at her and sniffed. "How can you be sure?"

Clara reached out a hand to him cautiously. He didn't shrink away when she finally touched his arm. "Because she is your friend. Your friendship matters more to her than your real name or what you are. She doesn't care about those things because she has fun when playing with you. Besides, all of those conflicts are in the past. Really, I know. I've seen them."

The boy, Elik, lifted his free arm slowly, uncertainly and then placed it on hers. "Thanks, Clara."

"You're welcome," she replied. "I suppose that's something else all of you don't say anymore."

"Yeah, I think that's something else that belongs to the past," laughed Knightwalker333. "You're really accepting of things."

"I've travelled a lot, so I've seen all kinds of things and people," stated Clara. "Enough about me, though. I think we have some other players with whom to catch up. Maybe we should team up and surprise them."

"Sounds like a plan to me!" exclaimed Knightwalker333. He took his hand off of her arm and then started riding forward again with new vigor. Clara started up her bike and sped after him. "So your world is nothing like this one? No videogames or chat sites?"

"No, there are," she shouted over the noise of her motorbike's engine. They were making good pace now, so she was afraid he wouldn't hear her. "I have several students who are quite enamored with their cell phones and social media profiles. I'm not entirely sure why."

"Well, in my opinion," started the boy, "it's like my gamer handle. Profiles and other devices are like armor. They protect us, and, in my case, they make me braver since people see only what I want them to see. For the most part, that is. It's much easier talking to someone through a screen, don't you think?"

Clara thought about it for a second. Yes, she supposed, it was more convenient. She could contact anyone anywhere at any time with her phone. But it was also harder to read people that way. She couldn't see how someone was feeling on Facebook unless they wrote it out. It was like hugging. A way to hide your face, your emotions.

A way for her to hide her reality from her family. What she really did when she was away, her grief over all she'd lost in the last year. She would pretend she was fine on the phone, and her dad, her gran, her step-mum- the few time she did talk to her- all bought it.

"I guess," she agreed reluctantly. Perhaps she wasn't all that different from Adisa or Elik. "Are you all really happy, though? Being isolated from other living people."

"I am," said Knightwalker333. "What we do with our time and how we relate to others doesn't really matter as long as we are."

"Yeah," agreed Clara, "I suppose it doesn't."

OoO

"Where does all the food come from?" asked the Doctor. He took his head out of the fridge and leaned against the adjacent wall. "The fridge might be self-replenishing, but who grows it?"

"There are farm buildings," said H.E.I.N., shutting the fridge door.

"But who runs the farms?" inquired the Doctor. "Surely you must know."

"There are robotic computers who grow the food," replied the A.I., hopping up to sit on the singular countertop. "They are quite efficient."

"I don't really care if they're efficient!" snapped the Doctor. He walked out of the tiny kitchen, back into the living room. "Your world doesn't make sense. How do people work? Who maintains basic infrastructure? Who is in charge of security? Do these questions not bother you?"

"No," responded H.E.I.N., coming out of the kitchen. He began flipping through one of the books sitting on top of the coffee table.

The Doctor snatched it away from him and tossed it onto the couch. "Pay attention! And stop grinning! Grinning is for buffoons. I hate buffoons."

H.E.I.N. attempted to school his features into a serious face, but failed miserably, in the Doctor's humble opinion. The corners of the A.I.'s mouth were still turned upward, making it look like he was smirking. Smirking was perhaps the only expression worse than grinning.

"You know, I think this is less about the life forms on this planet than it is about you, Doctor," stated the A.I., his tone, thankfully, somewhat serious.

The Doctor didn't know where H.E.I.N. was taking this conversation, so he proceeded cautiously. "I'm curious about the situation," he admitted. "It doesn't make it 'about me.'"

"You are disappointed."

"Of course I'm disappointed!" shouted the Doctor, glaring at the A.I. venomously. "Something is curbing this planet's potential!"

"You are disappointed because they are like you," asserted H.E.I.N. flatly.

"Like me?!"

"The life forms of this planet exist all alone, their only constant companion being the A.I. assigned to them," said H.E.I.N. matter-of-factly. "People all alone in a box just like the Doctor, forever alone with only his TARDIS for company."

The Doctor stood there silently for several moments, his mouth hanging slightly open. He then furrowed his brow and retorted, "Only by choice. And never forever. I may like traveling alone at times, just like the life forms here seem comfortable doing. It's refreshing; only my thoughts and my concerns. No one can slow me down. The TARDIS has been the only companion who can always keep up with me. But she knows and I know, as well, that it's not good for me. Without the company of other living beings I would lose myself. I would cease to be humane. Despite all of their shortcomings, humanity has always prevailed because of their connectivity, their compassion, their creativity, and their willingness to care. It's their highest qualities, and I can only hope to cheaply emulate them at that."

H.E.I.N. only looked back at him, for once not smiling. His eyes instead looked very sad. Before he could respond to the Doctor, however, there came a stumbling noise from the back room followed by a crash. Both he and the A.I. glanced in the direction of the noise.

There were only a few seconds of silence before he heard a voice. "Clara? Clara?!"

Everything seemed to freeze around him, his vision tunneling into the back door. Next thing he knew, he was running and jarring the blasted door open.

The resident hermit had knelt down on the floor next to Clara. His companion was sitting upright on the floor, her legs kicked out in front of her. She must have fallen backwards.

"What happened?!" he demanded. It came off more rough than he intended, but he didn't really care.

"I don't know!" exclaimed the hermit. "She crossed the finish line and then just disappeared! I paused the game so I could check to see if she got disconnected, but as soon as my helmet was off I saw her fall over!"

"Will you two stop talking like I can't hear you?" asked Clara softly. "I'm fine. Just a bit... dizzy."

"You don't sound 'fine'," retorted the Doctor, crossing his arms. "Not to mention that 'fine' isn't grammatically correct in this case."

"Shut up," mumbled Clara.

"What do you mean by dizzy?" questioned the hermit.

"I don't know," replied Clara. "My head felt fuzzy for a moment after crossing the finish line. I thought it was because I was excited about winning the race-"

"That's ridiculous," scoffed the Doctor. He took the sonic screwdriver out of his coat pocket. "Take off your helmet. Let's have a look."

"Doctor, it's really not necessary," complained Clara. She lifted up her hands, but stopped when they were in front of her helmet. "Er, Doctor…"

The hermit gave a squeak of surprise and terror, bringing a hand to her mouth. He could also see what was happening and was no less horrified. It should not be possible, Clara's hands being see-through. The Doctor would probably have marveled at this if not for the present circumstances. "Yes, yes. I see," he said quickly. "Stay with me, Clara."

"Doctor, what's happening to me?!" his companion panicked. "I feel… funny."

She gave a giggle after the last word. The Doctor raised his eyebrows. "Clara?"

He didn't like laughing. The Doctor especially didn't like hearing someone laugh for no reason, and now Clara was full out guffawing. She was disappearing more quickly now, hands and feet completely gone.

"What do we do?!" cried the hermit. "H.E.I.N.! What's happening to her?!"

The A.I. didn't materialize, but the Doctor didn't care. He probably couldn't help them now.

"Clara! Stop it!" he shouted, but his companion kept laughing. Her voice started becoming quieter and quieter. "Clara! CLARA!"

Her laughing faded out at the same time she did. The helmet dropped to the ground with a thud. She was gone.

 **Please review!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Hello everyone! I am back with a new chapter! Thanks again to everyone for all the overwhelming support this story has received. It really means a lot to me! And now, on with the story.**

 **Dobby's Imaginary Sock**

 **Chapter Five:**

 **To Save a Friend**

He began scanning the spot where Clara disappeared with the sonic. The Doctor was vaguely aware of the hermit falling to the ground behind him, her shaking legs giving out. Clara probably would have wanted him to help the hermit, but he didn't think that helping her was all that important at the moment. Falling happened, just like birthdays and bad dreams. The hermit probably wasn't hurt anyways. She didn't need his help right now, and considering how cross he was currently he wasn't about to offer it. It wasn't that the Doctor blamed her for what had happened. He was at fault for that. Like always he hadn't been careful enough, and now his companion, his friend, was gone.

Behind them the screen wall lit up with messages from someone or something called Knightwalker333. The hermit swiped a hand to the left, turning the screen off. "W-what happened to Clara?" she managed to stutter.

The reading came back. "Something charged the atoms in and around her, causing them to entangle," stated the Doctor.

"She teleported away," stated the hermit, her voice shell shocked. "Via spooky action."

"Yes," replied the Doctor bitterly. He wasn't as impressed with the hermit's knowledge on Einstein's theories as he usually would have been, given the circumstances. "Doesn't explain all the laughing. Might have been all the electricity around her triggering the ventromedial prefrontal cortex accidentally or on purpose. It would be easier to teleport someone who wasn't thinking straight. Never mind that, though. What's important is that she's probably stuck somewhere else. Only have to search an entire planet. Could be anywhere between hundreds to millions of other units, not to mention any other buildings."

"Stuck somewhere else?" questioned the girl. "But how?"

"This helmet obviously. Your gaming device is another's teleporter. It's the perfect charger, being so close to her," he grumbled. He began pacing back and forth. "More important, though, is why. Why would someone want Clara? Why her and not me?"

Again he was missing something obvious. Now, though, it was more important. For all he knew, every second the clock could be counting down Clara's demise. He'd been too busy being clever with his gadgets and talking to the A.I.-

Then it hit him. Oh so very obvious. He was furious with himself. Here he had been complaining that people weren't asking the right questions, when he couldn't even listen carefully enough to the answers to his own. He stormed towards the door.

"Where are you going?" asked Adisa, also standing up.

"To get some real answers," he snarled. "It's time to stop messing around."

H.E.I.N. was sitting on the couch gazing at his feet. He looked up as soon as he heard the Doctor storm into lounge. The A.I. scooted towards the end of the couch furthest away from him and put a pained smile on his face. "Is there something I can-"

"Oh, shut up!" snapped the Doctor. "And wipe that stupid grin off your face! You don't really want to help me, so don't ask me if there's 'something I can help you with?'!" H.E.I.N. stopped smiling and continued scooting away. The Doctor walked around the couch so that he was towering over him.

"What's going on?" inquired the hermit. She stood in the hallway connecting the lounge to the back room, one hand braced against the wall.

"Your A.I. knows more about me than he's letting on," explained the Doctor. "All he should know is that I travel with Clara, yet he's somehow aware of more. Who told you that I travel alone? How much do you know about me?!"

H.E.I.N. was shaking badly now, his round eyes wide with fear. Even with the Doctor looming over him, the A.I. said nothing.

"Maybe H.E.I.N. just guessed," suggested the hermit, her tone a bit more defensive than before. She took her hand off the wall and started rubbing her other arm.

"If he's such a good guesser, he should spend his time playing the lottery instead of researching me," retorted the Doctor. "Whose archives are you searching? U.N.I.T.? Torchwood? Is there someone else giving you this information?" H.E.I.N. stopped shaking at this last statement. The Doctor smirked triumphantly. "Now we're getting somewhere! Who are they, and why did they take Clara? You know where she is, don't you?"

The Doctor leaned forward, waiting for the A.I. to respond. Instead, H.E.I.N. began to disassemble himself, the nanoids tumbling to the floor in cascades.

"No, no! Don't you dare!" shouted the Doctor, grasping at the rolling nanoids. They slipped deftly through his fingers, hiding themselves in the hardest to reach nooks and crannies of the lounge. Soon they were all hidden from plain sight.

The Doctor was about ready to tear his hair out. He didn't have the time to be playing games with the nanoids. If the A.I. wasn't going to cooperate, then he would have to try something else. Desperate measures. He hated resorting to desperate measures, but the Doctor felt like he had little choice at the moment. Firm in his resolve, he headed towards the TARDIS.

"What are you doing?" questioned the hermit.

"I'm fetching an electromagnet so that I can collect your pesky nanoids."

"But an electromagnet could hurt him!" exclaimed the hermit. The color drained from her face. "It could mess up the polarity of the magnetic linkings or wipe part of his memory or-"

"Stop blubbering," grumbled the Doctor. "He's an A.I.! You'll probably be able to put him back together again once I'm done."  
"Probably?!"

"There is a chance whoever is behind this may choose to kill his programming to prevent me from searching his memory," admitted the Doctor. He turned away from her. "It's unfortunate but a risk that I'll have to take." He continued walking towards the TARDIS. Before he reached the door, he felt something tugging at his arm. When he looked back, he saw the hermit pulling his arm with all her might. She had apparently run around the couch to try and stop him from reaching the TARDIS. The Doctor inwardly groaned. All of this was getting annoying, and he needed to act quickly. "Let go!"

"No!" she cried. She moved her feet to try and gain more traction. "You can't do this!"

"Why not?!" asked the Doctor angrily. He really had better things to be doing than arguing with this child.

"Because H.E.I.N. is the first friend I ever had!" shouted the hermit. "If someone really doesn't want him telling you things, I could lose my best friend. Then I'll really be alone." Her eyes were beginning to water.

"Don't do the crying thing!" complained the Doctor. He tried shaking her off. She wasn't very strong, but her grip was tight. "Why do you humans always have to do the crying thing?!"

"Well, what would you be doing if someone threatened to take apart your ship?" questioned the hermit. Tears were falling freely down her face now.

"You don't take apart a TARDIS," scoffed the Doctor. He finally broke out of her grip and readjusted his jacket sleeve. "The TARDIS is a living entity! She'd fight anyone who tried."

"H.E.I.N. is alive, too!" The hermit balled her hands into fists. She walked away from him.

"H.E.I.N. doesn't have half of the qualifications needed to be classified as 'living'," responded the Doctor, following the hermit. "He's a set of programs that allow him to mimic a thinking, social being You could predict his reactions to anything by reading his coding. Besides, whether or not he's living is not the point!"

"Then what is?!" she yelled at him.

The Doctor was trying his best not to lash out at her. He knew Clara would not approve of him shouting at a child, but this one was trying his patience. The Doctor took a deep breath to calm himself. "Clara is my friend, and someone has taken her. She is real, living, potentially frightened, and probably in danger at this moment. You have only ever known a world in which you were alone, but trust me when I say that life has far more meaning when you can share it with others. I've travelled with many individuals, all of whom enriched my experiences. Clara is one of those people, and I will not leave here without her. Go on and return to living the way you always have after we're gone if that's what you want. Before that, though, I need both H.E.I.N. and you to help me to find Clara."

The hermit stared at him for what seemed like a long time after that, her face still wet with tears. He didn't say anything else, letting the silence hang over the room. Finally, she wiped her face on her sleeve. She turned away from him and took a couple steps forward. "H.E.I.N.," she said, her voice somewhat weak. The hermit sniffled and again rubbed at her eyes. "I-I know you're listening to me. I know that you're scared. So am I, but Clara needs your help. She has people at home who are waiting for her to come back to them. They might be missing her right now. I know that I'd miss you if you went away. I also know that you don't want to hurt anybody. If you can, please tell us how we might find her. It's really important. Please, do it for me."

Again there was silence. The Doctor did his best not to tap his foot or start pacing, for he was growing impatient. All of this talking and deliberating was eating up precious time, but he knew he couldn't interrupt this moment. Too much weighed upon this beat of silence to be impulsive.

A nanoid rolled cautiously across the floor towards the wall in front of the couch. Soon others emerged from their hiding spaces to join this first one. They all clambered up the wall, congregating into a large rectangle. Finally, the A.I. spoke. "Electronic records show an external IP address accessed this unit at 14:36:22."

"That was around the time Clara and you finished your game," stated the Doctor.

"How do you know that?" asked the hermit with a bamboozled look on her face. "You don't even have a watch!"

"Time is one of my things," retorted the Doctor with a wave of his hand. "I need the IP address. The TARDIS should be able to-"

"Tracing IP address," said H.E.I.N. firmly.

"Well, that saves me some trouble," muttered the Doctor, crossing his arms in front of his chest.

"IP address found," declared the A.I., projecting an image on himself. The image showed what looked like a supercomputer with the IP address printed below. " belongs to the Mainframe."

"The Mainframe?" questioned the Doctor.

"It's like his great-grandfather or something like that," explained the hermit.

The Doctor gave her a strange look, causing the hermit to blush. He broke his stare and instead examined the image again. "I suppose this Mainframe is located somewhere else. Is it a set of programs like yourself?"

"That is correct."

"Very well," replied the Doctor. "I could take the TARDIS to whatever building it's housed in, but I think it would be more convenient for all of us if I contacted it first. Can you do that for me?"

"Sending request for conference call with the Mainframe," announced the A.I., the image he projected changing to an envelope. "Message sent. Mainframe has received it. Message processing."

"Good," stated the Doctor. He clasped his hands together. "That covers one base, but I can't be sure that this Mainframe will tell me where it has sent Clara. She might have her phone on her." He walked over to the TARDIS and opened the front panel. The Doctor quickly dialed Clara's number and was promptly greeted by a dial tone. "Something is blocking the signal. Most likely the Mainframe, which I'll admit is impressive. Not just anything can block out the TARDIS. Next method, then. I'll need to track the energy signature from the teleportation."

The hermit ran to the back room and reemerged with the helmet Clara had been wearing. She opened a side panel on the helmet and pulled out the motherboard. "Since she hadn't logged out yet, the teleportation might have left a data trail. H.E.I.N. won't be able to process all of this data at the same time, but I could extract the game data from the helmet and have one of my friends analyze it."

"Of course!" exclaimed the Doctor. "I should have thought of that one myself. Good job… what's your name again?"

The hermit looked at him in disbelief. "Adisa."

"Right. You work at that," clipped the Doctor. The girl ran off to the back room with the motherboard. He turned back to H.E.I.N. who was still hanging on the wall. "How's the request coming along?"

By now the A.I. was no longer projecting the envelope on its surface. "Processing complete," declared H.E.I.N. cheerily. "Mainframe compiling response." Good. That meant that this Mainframe was willing to talk at least. The Doctor bounced on his toes as he waited for the A.I. to speak again. A new envelope appeared on H.E.I.N.'s surface projection. "You have one new message."

"Open it," demanded the Doctor.

"Okay!" responded H.E.I.N. enthusiastically. "Mainframe has sent you an invitation for a conference call in ten minutes. Do you wish to accept?"

"Yes," replied the Doctor quickly. "Ten minutes does not give us a lot of time for anything else. How long do you think it will take your friend to find Clara?"

The girl- Adisa, he reminded himself- peeked out at him from the doorway. "I just sent Knightwalker333 the data. If Clara's close by then he should probably be able to find her in, um, seven-ish minutes? A half hour at most. H.O.P.E. and he don't have much to go off of besides the data trail. I'm also going to work on it back here."

"Alright," said the Doctor, a bit disappointed. "Let me know as soon as you hear anything." He again turned to H.E.I.N., who had slid off of the wall and reconstructed himself in his humanoid form. "How will this conference call work? I don't see any speakers in this flat."

"The Mainframe will most likely use the screen in the back room."

"That's no good," replied the Doctor, shaking his head. "We're still using it to search for Clara. Is there any other device we can use?"

The A.I. shut its eyes in thought and then opened them. "I can reroute the call to one of the nanoids," stated H.E.I.N. "It may put some strain on this unit's electronic circuits."

"Fine," responded the Doctor. "Just do it. I'll worry about the circuits overloading." He walked into the TARDIS and proceeded directly to the compartments underneath the time rotor. They were going to need a portable generator, some cables, and maybe some dampers.

OoO

The first thing she noticed when she came to was that her head was aching. Not a stabbing pain but a dull throbbing. She tried to remember why her head should be hurting, but she was having trouble thinking.

Clara opened her eyes. The lights in the room were low, allowing her to make out the outlines of two doors. She was lying on something soft. A bed, she realized. So she was in a bedroom, most likely Adisa's room. Someone must have moved her here. She remembered feeling dizzy after winning at Galaxy Racers, so maybe she had passed out.

She sat up slowly, and the lights became brighter. They were probably motion sensitive, thought Clara. She wouldn't have put it past Adisa to find a way to do that. Adisa's bedroom was a bit different looking than she expected. It wasn't cluttered like the rest of the flat. Books were neatly arranged on the bookcase with pieces of pottery mixed in. The colors of the walls, the furniture, even the bedclothes were brighter, bolder. It made her think of her own flat.

Clara abruptly stood up. "Okay," she said. She took a deep breath to calm herself down. "Must be a coincidence. Or I could be dreaming." She pinched her arm. "Ouch! Not dreaming then."

She walked over to the bookshelf to examine the titles more closely. There were no math or physics books. Only novels, poetry, and travel journals. Clara picked up one from the top shelf. She felt her heart stop. The title was _101 Places to See_.

Clara dropped the book on the floor and ran out of the bedroom. She stopped in the middle of the lounge, and by now she was certain that this place was not Adisa's flat. The floor plan was the same, but everything inside spoke to her interests. A Chinese hand fan on the wall, a reading nook in the corner, mugs for tea, pans for cooking anything she could think of, pictures of places she'd been to or one day meant to visit. It was all arranged as if she herself had placed every object. She knew she had not. While it all looked like stuff she could own, she could tell that everything was brand new.

This flat had been created for her.

She wanted to run. Clara wanted to rip open the front door and run as fast as she could out of this flat, out of this building, as far as she could go. She wanted to be back in the TARDIS-

The Doctor. Where was the Doctor? She had been with him and Adisa before she had fainted. Everything was coming back to her now. The dizziness, her disappearing hands, her laughter. Clara didn't understand why she had been laughing. It hadn't been the least bit funny. Rather it was terrifying, just as it was now.

She heard something move behind her. Clara whipped her head around and gasped. Walking out of the kitchen holding a tray of tea was a robot who looked exactly like the A.I. she met while playing Galaxy Racers.

"Where am I?" asked Clara, backing up as she spoke.

"Hello," started the robot. This one was apparently a girl as well. "My name is H.E.R.A., and I am here to assist you."

"I gathered that," stated Clara irritably. "Where are the Doctor and Adisa? I was just with them."

"There are no Doctors or Adisas registered to this unit," replied the interface, setting the tray down on the wooden coffee table. "Would you like me to conduct an encyclopedia search of those terms?"

"No, I know what they mean!" snapped Clara. "They are people who I know, and I would like to go back to them. Can you take me back to Adisa's flat?"

"I'm sorry," apologized the robot. "I do not know what Adisa's flat is."

"You have to know!" shouted Clara. She backed up further so that she was in the small hallway connecting to the back room of the flat. "I was just there! How else did I get here?!"

"There is no need to panic," said the robot flatly, moving closer to her. The A.I. reached out a metallic hand to her. "Your security is assured here. You will always be safe now."

Clara did not like the sound of 'always.' She couldn't be stuck here alone forever. It would drive her mad. Before the robot could touch her, she turned on her heel and ran into the back room, slamming the door shut behind her. Clara looked for a lock and found that the door, thankfully, did have one. Once she was certain the robot outside could not get in, Clara sat down on the floor.

After taking several deep breaths she tried to think of what to do next. She needed to get out of here. If this flat was anything like Adisa's- which Clara expected to be the case- then the front door was not an option. Clara pulled out her cell, dialed the TARDIS phone number with shaky fingers, and pressed call. Nothing. She tried several more times, but all she could hear was a dial tone. Clara threw her phone onto the carpeted floor in frustration. "This cannot be happening now!" she cried out in frustration. "It figures my cell doesn't work when I need it the most."

Clara had no idea where she was and wasn't even sure if she could contact the Doctor from here, which meant she was on her own. She could handle this. This wasn't the worst situation she had ever been in since she first started travelling. Clara leaned back so that her head was touching the door. Who was she kidding? This was bad, not normal bad but a different kind of bad. Being stuck here wouldn't immediately and directly kill her. That much was certainly different. The threat, however, was that she would be stuck here forever. She would never travel again in the TARDIS. Never again would she wander amongst the stars, saving planets with her best friend only to be home in time for tea. It seemed ironic that just that morning the Doctor had asked her if she wanted to stop at home to visit her family and celebrate the holidays. Now she might never see any of them again.

Clara could feel herself beginning to break down. She tried to stop it- she knew it wouldn't help her out of this situation- but she couldn't stop the lump growing in her throat or the tears welling up in her eyes. The Doctor would probably call her a leaky faucet or something like that if he could see her now. Clara laughed bitterly. Not seeing him again might be the hardest thing of all. After everything they'd gone through for it to all end like this…

A bright light turned on in front of her, causing Clara to jump. She reached for an object to throw and ended up picking up her cell. Fat lot of good that would do. Clara shielded her eyes with her free hand, trying to make out what she was seeing. Before her eyes could adjust to the light, though, it spoke.

"Clara? Are you there?"

 **Please Review!**


	6. Chapter 6

**I'm back again! Thought I'd address a few comments this time. Thanks to Musi for clarifying some British colloquialisms for me. I may go back and fix them at some point. Also, for xandrota's question, all of the A.I.'s names mean something. H.E.I.N. gave his whole name in chapter two, but I'll list his and the ones for the other two below.**

 **H.E.I.N. - Human Engineered Interactive Nexus**

 **H.O.P.E. - Humanoid Oriented Programmed Electronic**

 **H.E.R.A. - Humanoid Engineered Responsive Automaton**

 **Thanks again for all the support!**

 **Dobby's Imaginary Sock**

 **Chapter Six:**

 **The Cost of Fear**

"This should give us an additional 25 kW of power in here," stated the Doctor. "The TARDIS should be able to maintain power for the screen." He had opened a panel in the wall in order to connect the wiring in the flat to the small generator he had found in the TARDIS. It was a good thing he never got rid of anything. He knew it drove most of his companions bonkers, having all kinds of strange contraptions in storage, but he always found a use for these items. Eventually. He had been holding onto this generator from Hyspero for quite some time now. The Doctor hadn't even been sure at first if it was still operable. A long cable connected the screen in the back room to the TARDIS console, converting power from the TARDIS into a low level electrical current that the screen could handle.

H.E.I.N. examined his work from behind him, holding a toolbox he'd fetched from Adisa the Hermit's room. "There is not much time left."

"Exactly one minute and forty-three seconds," asserted the Doctor. He snapped off the rubber gloves he'd been wearing for protection. "Could check the dampers again, but I think this set-up will have to do."

"I will power down now to allow maximum available resources to be utilized in your conference call," said the A.I. "Good luck." The nanoids began to disassemble and roll off in different directions. Soon only one was left on the floor close to the Doctor's foot. He picked it up and placed it on top of a stack of books sitting on the coffee table.

The Doctor sat down so that he was closer to the nanoid. He glared at the nanoid and leaned forward in his seat. The lights began to flicker in the lounge and dim. One of the light bulbs overhead made a popping noise and burnt out. The singular nanoid on the table quivered and then pivoted on the spot. It spun towards him as if orienting itself and stopped. "I take it that I'm speaking to the Mainframe now," declared the Doctor sternly.

"That is correct," replied the Mainframe. Unlike the A.I., it didn't sound like it had any kind of distinct identity. The Mainframe sounded like it could be many things at once: man, woman, humanoid, digital, and everything else in between. He wanted to ask it so many questions, for the Doctor was certain it was truly fascinating.

However, this moment was not the right time for questions. The Doctor figured that he could brush past formalities and get straight to the point. He doubted the supercomputer would have programs causing it to care about that, and, even if it did, Clara wasn't here to reprimand him. "Excellent. Down to business, then. You have my friend."

"Affirmative," responded the Mainframe.

The Doctor waited for a couple of seconds to allow the supercomputer to continue. This pause extended into a minute, so he decided to speak up again. "That's all?" he asked, a little bit confused. "You took Clara! I don't know where she is!"

"Clara Oswald is safe."

"Well, that's good," said the Doctor tersely. "I'm glad that she's safe, but I'd like you to put her back in this flat." He pointed at the ground for emphasis.

"We cannot do that," stated the Mainframe flatly.

"Of course you can!" exclaimed the Doctor. "You teleported her out of this flat, so you are capable of teleporting her back."

"Action is not permitted."

"You need permission," said the Doctor. He raised his attack eyebrows mockingly. "Oh, I'm _terribly_ sorry. I permit your teleportation of Clara Oswald into this flat."

"Permission not accepted," replied the Mainframe.

The Doctor rolled his eyes. "Of course it wasn't. I'm willing to bet psychic paper won't work in this situation either."

"Psychic paper. A device-"

"Stop it," snapped the Doctor, glaring at the nanoid again. He could now see what Adisa the Hermit meant when she said H.E.I.N. and the Mainframe were related. "I know what psychic paper is. I don't need you to obsessively define things. It's a waste of time and not the least bit funny."

"Definition program terminated," acquiesced the supercomputer.

"Good. Whose permission would you need to teleport Clara here? Adisa's? H.E.I.N.'s?" he inquired.

"Permission not accepted," repeated the Mainframe.

The Doctor stood up angrily. "Then whose?!" he shouted.

The lights began to flicker again, causing him to momentarily worry that the circuits had overloaded. Instead the lights dimmed further and stabilized. Adisa the Hermit popped her head out of the back door. "Doctor?! My friend's found her!" she called excitedly.

He turned to the girl and gave her a brief smile. "Very good… It was Skywalker, wasn't it?"

"Knightwalker333," corrected a boy's voice coming from the back room.

"Whatever."

"Or Elik, as I call him," said a different voice. The Doctor was instantly relieved upon hearing Clara speak. She was awake. "Can you hear me, Doctor?"

"Loud and clear, Clara," he responded. "Any way we can move this whole conversation to the front room?"

"Yeah. Just give me a minute!" Adisa the Hermit ducked back into the room for a couple of minutes before returning to the lounge. The lights blinked for a couple seconds and then steadied once more at the same brightness. She picked up two nanoids that rolled out from behind a bookcase, placing them on the coffee table on either side of first nanoid. They both wiggled for a minute before projecting images: a generic icon on the left and Clara's face on the right.

The image of Clara looked around. "Whoa," she uttered. "This is weird."

"Clara, are you alright?" queried the Doctor. He heard a muffled banging noise in the background. "Was that on you end?"

"Just a very persistent robot. Don't think I have to worry about it yet. I suppose I should just tell it to go away," mused Clara. "As for your first question, it depends on what you mean by 'alright'. I suppose 'alright' meets your grammar criteria."

She was in good enough physical and mental condition to make jokes. That was good. Time to move on. "Yes, it does," he quipped. "Enough of that, though. I'm talking to the Mainframe right now, Clara."

"The Mainframe talks?" questioned the not-Jedi.

"Yes, it does," sighed the Doctor. He didn't really want to take the time to walk all of them through by the hand. "It's a supercomputer! It can control the A.I.s in every dwelling on the planet! If it was programmed to that, then I'm certain it was also programmed to speak and understand the languages of all species living here."

"What has it been saying?" asked Clara eagerly.

"It says that it needs permission to teleport you back to Adisa's flat," explained the Doctor, gesturing at the center nanoid. It sat there passively.

"That sounds easy enough," stated Clara.

"It won't accept permission from H.E.I.N., Adisa, or myself," he continued.

"But it's my flat!" protested Adisa the Hermit.

"Well, that's an issue. Were you polite when you asked it, Doctor?"

"I don't think it would know polite if it hit them in the face," he answered truthfully, a sour look on his face. "The Mainframe uses plural pronouns for some reason, like it's a queen. Not that I understand queens or actually know one who really talks about herself that way-"

"Perhaps another time Doctor," interrupted Clara with a huff.

"Right," he agreed.

"Maybe Clara should ask?" suggested the not-Jedi uncertainly. "She was the one teleported, after all."

"Good idea!" declared the Doctor. "Nice to land someplace where earthlings are not idiots, for once."

"I heard that!" cried out Clara indignantly. She wrinkled her nose. "Seems like I'm always having to get myself out of trouble. How are you talking to the Mainframe, anyhow?"

"We've directed it through one of the nanoids just like the two of you," he elaborated. "I could turn you towards it, if you'd like, but you won't see much. Just a nanoid"

"Don't bother," she sighed. Clara cleared her throat. "Hello, er, great and powerful Mainframe. Can you...all of you... hear me?"

"Voice recognized: Clara Oswald."

"Yes, that's me," stated Clara. "I appreciated all the effort you put into this flat where I'm at right now, but I'd really like to go home. I give you all permission to teleport me back to Adisa's flat, so please do it."

The Mainframe paused before speaking. "Action is not permitted."

"What?!" blurted out Clara. Her facial expression changed to one of shock and outrage. "I gave you permission! Really polite permission!"

"Action is against protocol."

"What protocol?!" demanded the Doctor. He turned to face the nanoid and fixed a glare on it once again.

"Teleportation of subject Clara Oswald would violate basic operating guidelines," clarified the supercomputer. "Living beings are to be kept safe."

"Teleporting people against their will doesn't sound 'safe' to me," muttered the not-Jedi.

"I'm sure she appreciates being safe, but Clara wants to go home!" exclaimed Adisa. She looked down at the center nanoid pleadingly. "She has a life with people important to her back where she came from! You have to let her go! Isn't that right, Doctor?"

"What do you mean by safe?" he inquired, completely ignoring Adisa the Hermit's question.

"At first," began the Mainframe, "there were only humans on the surface of this planet. Then others came: some from space, others from inside the Earth. For a while they all were able to live in peace. They intermixed, built great societies together, and expanded the potential of the planet. But then the ever present fear in the hearts of all life forms born from the most miniscule of differences re-emerged. Fear led to hatred, and hatred led to war. Soon the whole world was entrenched in conflict. Wars were followed by plagues and famines. Cities were burned, families scattered, and cultures destroyed. The progress of Earth's science, technology, and creativity came to a halt. For two hundred years this lasted. When the fighting finally stopped, those beings who still remained found they could no longer live with each other anymore. They had forgotten how to trust each other."

"Living beings, however, cannot manage on their own forever, so scientists turned to us. We were to mediate between the life forms to create stability on the planet and diagnose the problems leading to its state of chaos. In the end, we determined that the remedy for these problems was to keep living beings separated from each other. We expanded our capabilities to take charge of the processes necessary to maintain living beings, created AI companions for each being, and quarantined the planet from outside visitors. The results were optimal."

"Perfect comfort and safety without a need for person-to-person interaction," surmised the Doctor.

"Living beings cannot physically harm one another if they never meet," stated the Mainframe.

"Physically, yes," agreed the Doctor. "But what about mentally or emotionally?" He tried to not grimace at the last word. This face was not good with emotions, but it would be best not to let the supercomputer know that. "Pain and suffering don't always leave physical wounds. Fear isn't always outwardly directed either. You can try to stop all these things - I've tried to do that many times - but eliminating only one factor like physical interaction cannot completely eradicate these problems. Go on and see for yourself! Check the forums, the websites, the chat rooms! What are people actually saying?"

The Mainframe was silent for a beat, probably to process his claims. "Running inquiries: state of mind, emotional state."

The Doctor noted that the supercomputer apparently could be curious. That was good for now. This meant it was willing to think, so perhaps what it found would change its mind.

"Inquiries complete."

"And what did you find?" he asked.

"Word counts for terms 'hate', 'sad', 'unhappy', and related terms are very high," said the supercomputer. "All are not considered optimal states of being."

"Really? We had no idea," muttered the not-Jedi sarcastically.

The Doctor gave an annoyed huff. He really didn't need anyone making snide comments beside himself or maybe Clara. Besides, they were at a crucial moment now. The Mainframe was now doubting its previous conclusions. A little more prodding in the right direction and he might be able to fix this whole situation without it exploding in his face. He stared at the center nanoid seriously. "What are you going to do about it?"

"Additional calculations must be made," concluded the Mainframe. "Processing outcomes."

"That's all well and good," said Clara impatiently, "but I still want out of here. Could you just let me go and think about it later?"

"Conclusion reached: result still optimal," announced the Mainframe.

Adisa the Hermit's jaw fell open. "But you said that people weren't experiencing 'optimal states of being'! Doesn't that mean you should let her go?!"

"All alternative scenarios have been evaluated. Corporal security is maximized in current conditions."

"I don't really care about my corporal safety being maximized!" snapped Clara, glaring at the center nanoid. "Let me out!"

"Request denied," replied the supercomputer emotionlessly.

"Would you actually listen to me?!" protested Clara. "I don't want to be here! Doctor, why won't it listen to me?!"

"Clara, it's a supercomputer," stated the Doctor bitterly. "It doesn't care about what you feel as long as it's acting in accordance with its primary objective: keeping living beings safe. The Mainframe can observe emotions, but it can't feel them. There's nothing remotely humanoid about it."

Clara looked at him, clearly devastated. "Is that it then? The Mainframe is never going to let me leave."

"No, Clara," said the Doctor urgently. "I'm not giving up-"

"None of us are!" exclaimed Adisa the Hermit.

"Don't interrupt me!" grumbled the Doctor. The girl blushed and shrank into herself. Clara glared at him. "... Sorry. We're never going to stop trying! Nightwing!"

"Knightwalker333!"

"Or Elik."

"Right, right," sniffed the Doctor, dismissing his slight blunder with a wave of his hand. It wasn't like he knew this boy personally, so he didn't see the reason to remember either of his names. "I need the IP address. I'll have to take the TARDIS to Clara."

"Action is not permitted," declared the Mainframe.

"Shut up!" he snarled, turning away from the nanoids and Adisa the Hermit. The Doctor stood up and walked towards the TARDIS. "You're not helping us, so go back to processing requests for cabbages or whatever it is that you're willing to do! I'm finished talking to you!"

"What about Nova153 and me?" inquired the Knight Fellow.

"I'm afraid there's not much else I can do for your friend and you unless you both want a lift elsewhere, Lancelot," responded the Doctor.

"It's not- oh, never mind!"

"Actions are not permitted."

"I told you to shut up!" he yelled as he knelt down to disconnect the cables.

"Um… uh… Doctor?" stammered Adisa the Hermit.

"If you don't want to come along, it's your choice," he told her brusquely.

"It's not that-"

"Then don't bother me!"

"But-"

"I mean it!"

"No, Doctor!" shouted Clara. "Look!"

He turned around and immediately wished Adisa the Hermit was more eloquent. The other nanoids minus the two streaming Clara and the Knight Fellow into the conference call were gathering to the center nanoid. "Initiating lockdown," announced the Mainframe flatly. The lights began to flicker.

"Hey!" shouted the Knight Fellow.

"Doctor!" Clara cried out. The projection of her and the Knight Fellow's icon blinked out.

"Clara!" he shouted. The nanoids that had linked the two of them into the conference call joined the others in the center of the room, forming a large mass. Oh, this was very not good. He turned to Adisa the Hermit. "We need to cut the electricity now!"

"On it!" she exclaimed, running to the open panel in the wall. Adisa the Hermit picked up his discarded gloves and pulled them on.

The Doctor dived out of the way as the mass reached forward to engulf him. "Objective: Teleportation of the Doctor. Action is authorized."

"No, I'm not going anywhere!" he protested as he scrambled to his feet. He ran around to the other side of the couch. "Cancel your authorization!"

One of the bulbs overhead popped and went out. The nanoids wavered for a moment but then continued moving. He heard the girl fumbling with something. "Doctor! It's not working!" yelled Adisa the Hermit. "The generator is disconnected, but the circuit breaker won't switch off!"

The Doctor ran over to her, dodging another attempt by the Mainframe to grab him. He tried pulling the main lever on the circuit breaker. It didn't budge. "Does nothing move in this flat!" he growled.

"Look out!"

They both ducked out of the way of the nanoids, all of which shot past them to the other end of the hall. They scattered upon landing. "Someone needs to get back to the TARDIS and disconnect her from the cables," he said quickly to the girl. The nanoids began to conglomerate again. "Considering the amount of power the Mainframe is using to control the nanoids, cutting the TARDIS power to the flat will most likely overload the circuits, which should stop it."

"Should?!" shrieked Adisa the Hermit.

"Best shot we have considering the Mainframe seems to have taken control of your flat. Now go and do it!"

"Why me?!"

"It won't go after you until it's caught me and teleported me who knows where," he explained. "Not that I like this option, but I don't have much of a choice at the moment. Here it comes again, so go!"

The girl nodded and ran off towards the TARDIS. He ran the opposite direction, stopping in front of the kitchen. The mass leapt at him again and he moved at the last second. It missed him by mere centimeters. Another bulb gave a pop before shattering, further darkening the lounge. Adisa the Hermit finished disconnecting the cable from the TARDIS. All of the lights in the flat cut out, leaving the lounge barely lit by the light streaming out from the open TARDIS doors. For a second the nanoids stopped moving, some of them rolling off of the mass onto the floor. Then they lunged.

He didn't have time to move out of the way. The Doctor felt his back hit the front door of the flat, the wind rushing out of his lungs.

"No!" screamed the girl. "Stop it!"

He desperately tried to reach into his coat pocket to grab the sonic screwdriver, a last ditch effort at escape. The nanoids, however, constricted his movement. There was a buzz in the air around him and a distinct change in magnetism. He tried to speak, but between his lack of breath and the dizziness he was starting to feel he found that he couldn't say anything.

"H.E.I.N.!" cried out Adisa the Hermit, looking around wildly. "I need you! Override the nanoids! H.E.I.N.!"

The already dim room grew darker even though the TARDIS door remained open. Only logical explanation for that he was losing consciousness. He fought it in vain, but soon the girl's cries grew faint and the room spun before him. Darkness finally took him.

 **Please review!**


	7. Chapter 7

**And I'm back! Sorry for the long delay. Been a bit hectic where I am. Anyways, here is the newest chapter. The next one should be the last one. Thanks again to everyone who has reviewed, alerted, and favorited this story! You're all the best!**

 **Dobby's Imaginary Sock**

 **Chapter Seven:**

 **Defining the Human Spirit**

Clara tapped on the screen in front of her. "Doctor?!" She looked along the edges of screen wall, searching for some kind of button or switch that might help her control it. If there was one, then she couldn't find it. "How do I even use this?!"

Elik's icon appeared on the screen as it had before. "Clara? Are you still there?" the boy asked.

"Elik!" she exclaimed. "Yes, I'm here. Can you get through to Adisa and the Doctor?"

"No," he said sadly. "I tried to as soon as I got kicked out of the conference call, but all of my calls and messages keep getting bounced back. Have you tried?"

"Er… no. I can't figure out how to use the screen," admitted Clara. "Does it have a keyboard? Touchscreen? Something like that?"

"Well, um, I guess that's a no then…" stammered the boy. The robot banged on the door again. "Is that your A.I.?"

"I wouldn't call it 'mine'," huffed Clara. She crossed her arms in front of her. "I didn't ask for it."

"The A.I. should be able to help you," stated Elik. "You should let it in."

"Is that really necessary?" inquired Clara. She looked back at the door and wrinkled her nose.

"Necessary? I guess if you want to find out what's going on, then yes," replied the boy. "Are you afraid of it? It's not going to bite you."

Clara opened and closed her mouth several times. She wasn't afraid of the robot. There was nothing remotely frightening about an A.I. who had an unspecified amount of knowledge about her. "No!" she exclaimed. "It's just… What I mean is… Ugh... Fine."

She walked over to the door. Her hand hovered before the lock as she second guessed herself. The robot had never done anything to her, but she was a little bit scared. Clara hated to admit it, for it was a silly fear considering everything she had ever seen in her travels with the Doctor. If the robot were going to go on a rampage, then it probably would have done so by now. At least, that was what she reassured herself with as Clara opened the door to let the A.I. inside.

"Er… hello," she said to the robot.

"Hello Clara," replied the A.I., her voice warm with affection. Clara felt the hair on the back of her neck stand on end. This A.I. was probably trying to be friendly or could have been programmed to be extremely warmhearted. She didn't really care. To her, the robot was just _creepy_.

"Sorry about the whole door thing," apologized Clara sheepishly. "Needed a couple of minutes to get used to all this. Could you help me with the screen in here?"

"Of course!" responded the robot. It walked into the room and stopped in front of the screen. The A.I. raised a hand and a holographic keyboard appeared. "What can I do to assist you?"

"I wanted to contact a friend in another flat," she explained. "Can you call Adisa King?"

"I can send you her number," offered Elik. An image of an envelope popped up on the screen. The A.I. opened the message with a tap of its hand and glanced it over.

"Calling Adisa King," announced the robot. Clara crossed her arms in front of her and settled in to wait. As the seconds ticked by she couldn't help but worry about the Doctor and Adisa. She didn't know what the Mainframe meant by a lockdown, although she was pretty certain it was not a good thing. "Call blocked. Would you like to leave redial?"

"No thanks." She tried not to let the disappointment show in her face. "I can't reach them either, Elik."

"Yeah, I could hear that," said the boy. He sighed. "I'm not sure what to do now. Doesn't seem like waiting will help."

"Probably not," agreed Clara. She shut her eyes and thought. They needed to move quickly, for she wasn't sure what the Mainframe intended to do. A thought struck her and she opened her eyes. "We don't have to call Adisa. The TARDIS has a phone attached to it. As long as it's still in her flat we can call them there."

"That's great! But what do we do then? Do we have a plan?"

"No," she admitted. Clara began to pace back and forth. "That could be a problem. Most likely we'll only get one shot at this, so we need to make this call count. So… scenarios. Best thing that could happen is that they're stuck in Adisa's flat with no communication with the outside world. What's the worst scenario?"

"Your friend has been teleported to another flat without any contact with the outside world and the Mainframe has this TARDIS thing you're talking about," offered Elik.

Clara winced. "That would be bad. I suppose we'll have to plan for the worst. I don't know if the Mainframe would bother answering the TARDIS phone if it heard it ringing. At the very least, it probably can't fly her."

"Wait, now I'm confused," interrupted the boy. "What exactly is this TARDIS?"

"TARDIS," stated the robot. It stepped forward, apparently eager to help. "A sentient spaceship capable of traversing space and time. Limits are not available."

"Of course they're not!" snapped Clara. "I'm not sure if even the Doctor knows everything about the TARDIS."

"Clara, what do we do if the Mainframe is capable of using the TARDIS?" asked Elik. "I know you said it probably couldn't, but still…"

She really didn't want to think about that situation. "We'll have to do something before that happens," she clipped. "Ideas! We need some kind of strategy. What all do we know about the Mainframe?"

"Hold on a minute," said the boy. She could hear him rustling paper, most likely flipping the pages of a book. "A group of humanoid scientists created the Mainframe shortly before the wars began-"

"Why would they do that?!"

"Why do we do anything?" inquired Elik in return. "They built it to run large calculations, ones too big for people to handle. When everyone finally got tired of the fighting-"

"I know," sighed Clara. "They turned to it for an answer to their problems. Must have gotten quite the ego from being asked to solve all the Earth's problems."

"It's a supercomputer," the boy reminded her. "They don't have egos."

"Then why does it refer to itself as 'we'?"

"Well…" Elik drew out the word, probably because he was thinking of some response to her question. "It's a problem solver. The scientists who created the Mainframe in the first place probably programmed it to collect knowledge and learn from it. It has their voices and the voices of countless others running through its memory. All of those voices go into evaluating every question posed to it, so it's like talking to multiple people in a sense."

"Okay, so it either thinks in the plural or is completely mad," responded Clara. A bit confusing, but she supposed that she could wrap her head around it. "It only uses the logical bits of its human knowledge, right?"

"Yup. It calculates best solutions and applies them. Unfortunately it doesn't seem capable of making exceptions. It sort of has a one track mind."

"Figures we create our own worst problems," muttered Clara. She mused on these facts for a bit before continuing. "Maybe there's something we've missed. A supercomputer with an objective to cloister all living beings. There has to be something we can do to stop it! But what is it?!"

"You have one new message-" announced the robot.

"Not now!" she yelled.

"Uh, Clara?" questioned the boy. "Who's messaging you?"

"Does it really matter?" inquired Clara, huffing in frustration.

"I kinda think so, because I didn't send you anything. If it isn't me, then who is it?"

Her eyes widened. It was a very good question, one she hadn't even thought of asking. "Who is it from, er… Sorry, but what's your name again? I don't usually forget things like this. It's terribly rude of me." Not to mention incredibly like a certain two-hearted alien. He would lord it over her should he ever find out about this.

"H.E.R.A.," replied the robot. "Humanoid Engineered Responsive Automaton. Records show that names are important to you. Please don't feel bad. Forgetting is common when individuals are not properly acquainted."

"Right," she concurred. Clara stepped towards the robot. "Who is the message from, H.E.R.A.?"

"Sender ID is not immediately available," stated the A.I. "Would you still like me to open it?"

"That sounds sketchy," declared Elik. "It could be a virus."

Clara bit her lip. "We'll have to take that risk. Open it."

It was thankfully not a virus. Just a short, to the point message that she read several times before smiling. "Now that's a plan."

OoO

He could feel himself waking up. The Doctor didn't think he'd been out too long, perhaps a few minutes. His back still hurt from where he had collided with the door. In fact, he was almost certain he was still leaned up against a door. Whether or not it was the same one, he couldn't tell. The Doctor had always hated this aspect of passing out.

The Doctor finally managed to open his eyes and was greeted by brightness. He blinked several times, waiting for his eyes to adjust to the light. The first thing he noticed was that he was at least in the same room as the TARDIS. That was good. He could work with that as soon as he managed to get up. The TARDIS phone was off the hook, so someone must have answered it while he was out. Potentially not good. However, it was not as bad as the shadowy figure standing over him.

It was the nanoids, looming over him but now frozen in place. The mass was arched in the middle as if some invisible being had grabbed it around the middle and pulled it backwards. For a second he wondered if time had stopped, but then he noticed that the girl was still there, crouched next to the now reconnected cable and looking at the nanoids in astonishment.

He gritted his teeth before asking what was possibly his least favorite question in the universe. "What happened?" Now he looked like an idiot pudding brain.

"I-I'm not sure," replied Adisa the Hermit, standing up slowly. "Your ship started ringing, so I answered the phone and Clara told me to turn the power back on. When I did that, the nanoids moved back and then this happened." She gestured at the frozen mass.

The Doctor put a hand on the door behind him and pushed himself up into a standing position. "Something has the Mainframe stopped, but for how long?" he asked. The Doctor leaned forward to look at the nanoids more closely. "Is it truly stuck?"

The nanoids began to quiver and then tried to swipe at him. Adisa the Hermit gave a shriek and covered her eyes. He took a step back.

"Please don't come close to it," said a voice overhead. "My hold over the nanoids is unstable at the moment."

"H.E.I.N.!" cried out the girl, moving her hands away from her eyes. "You heard me!"

"Of course I did," grunted the A.I. H.E.I.N. sounded like her was struggling against something. "I couldn't do anything until you plugged the generator and the TARDIS back in, so I had Clara call you."

"Is she still on the line?" questioned the Doctor. He crept around the frozen nanoids and then hurried over to the TARDIS, picking up the receiver. "Clara?"

"Doctor!" sighed his friend in relief. "Are you alright?!"

"Yes, yes," he assured her quickly. "What's happening at your place?"

"Please don't call it my place," she groaned. The corner of his mouth quirked up in amusement. "The A.I. here and I are helping H.E.I.N. to carry out his plan."

"A plan?" he inquired. The Doctor glowered. He was usually the one coming up with plans to rescue everyone. Now what was he supposed to do? "I don't suppose I have a part in this plan?"

"No, you do," responded Clara. "There should be a chip hidden in a book on algorithms next to the TARDIS."

He looked down at the floor and spotted the aforementioned book at the bottom of nearest stack. The Doctor snatched it up, knocking the rest of the books to the ground, and began shaking it until the chip fell out. "I have the chip. What now?"

"It has a program- well, actually a virus- that Adisa uses to hack into various gaming systems," she elaborated. "Do you think you could modify it to hack into something larger?"

The Doctor smirked. "That's child's play," he said, scanning the chip with the sonic. He walked purposefully through the open TARDIS door, dragging the receiver along with him. The Doctor plugged the sonic into a port on the console and began editing the virus. "I'm the most proficient hacker that any of you are likely to ever meet. Back when I was in the Academy-"

"Maybe later, Doctor," interrupted Clara. He pursed his lips in annoyance. "You're also going to need to tell Adisa to start backing up H.E.I.N.'s firewall. The Mainframe will most likely try to rewrite his programming, and his plan won't work unless he's able to keep it busy."

"Local Hermit!" called the Doctor. Adisa looked through the TARDIS door, her gaze darting from him to the rest of the TARDIS interior. As much amusement as he got from the reaction of anyone first seeing the inside of his ship, he really didn't have time for the girl to be distracted. "Your number is up! H.E.I.N. needs you to keep his firewall intact."

"Right!" exclaimed Adisa the Hermit. She ran over to the coffee table and reached under it, retrieving something that looked like a keyboard. A holographic screen appeared in front of her, and she began typing.

"Why does he need to keep the Mainframe busy?" he asked Clara.

She paused before saying softly, "So that you can finish that virus and set it on the Mainframe."

"He does realize that this program will delete large sections of the Mainframe's core programming," said the Doctor. "He could very likely delete the other A.I.s and himself."

"H.E.I.N. knows that," replied Clara, "but he's worried about Adisa. Even if we were to leave and she promises not to tell anyone else about what happened here, the Mainframe may not be satisfied. It could cut her off from the rest of the world. H.E.I.N. is pretty sure the Mainframe will delete him anyways since he helped us."

The Doctor shrugged. "Alright," he muttered, continuing to work on the virus. The TARDIS pulled up the Mainframe's source code. "His funeral."

The nanoids began to quiver again and then froze. "You cannot hold us forever," declared the Mainframe. "We have superior capabilities and programming."

"Well, I have my friends," objected the A.I. The Doctor raised his eyebrows. In all his years he had never met an A.I. that was so sentimental. He would hardly call himself friends with H.E.I.N. They'd just met today. Clara would probably agree with the A.I., but to him it was equivalent to the familiarity humans had with others they passed on the street.

The Doctor watched as the mass stretched and compressed, looking as if it were fighting itself. It twisted into a spiral ascending towards the ceiling. "Obedience to protocol is not optional," stated the Mainframe. "You are only an A.I, a consciousness developed from the programs given to us by humanoids."

"I am not a reflection of you!" shouted H.E.I.N., causing the girl to jump in her place on the couch. She blushed and continued typing. "I may not be human, and I may not have have half of the qualifications to be classified as living." The Doctor tried not to wince as the A.I. repeated his words from earlier. "But I am me! I've decided that humanoids need other humanoids! It has nothing to do with logic or primary objectives! How do we even know if this is the best way if we haven't tried any others? How can they learn not to fear and hate each other unless we let them live together?! Maybe it is time we change the objective."

"Suggestion is rejected," retorted the Mainframe coolly. "Diagnosing A.I. Diagnosis: Infected. Commencing dump of A.I."

The girl stopped typing. "No!"

"Keep going!" yelled the Doctor as he finished working on the program. "You stop and it can get through and delete your friend!"

"Adisa, he's right," commented H.E.I.N. The nanoids wriggled and reached out to her before stopping again. "Don't worry about it trying to delete me, worry about it trying to stop me from helping all of you."

"How are those two any different?" the girl protested. She began to shakily type again.

"Doctor, have you finished with the virus?" Clara inquired. "The A.I. here has broken through its antivirus protection."

He looked the virus over again and hesitated at the end. As soon as he sent this virus to the Mainframe both it and H.E.I.N. would be dead. The Doctor could live with destroying the supercomputer on his conscience, but he wasn't so sure about the A.I.s. True, they weren't biologically alive, so he technically wouldn't be killing anything. This face also didn't seem to care so much about that. He just tried to save as many individuals as he could. The rest were just collateral damage. But to the individuals of this time period, these A.I.s were alive. They were not human, but they did have something akin to the human spirit. That should matter to him. He wasn't sure if it really did, but it should.

The Doctor added a couple of lines at the end. "Of course I have!" he snapped. "I'm having the TARDIS send it to the IP address as we speak." With a couple of key strokes he sent off the virus to the now vulnerable supercomputer. "Might take a few minutes to kick in."

"Deletion progress at 9%," stated the Mainframe. The nanoids movement became less rigid as the supercomputer continued its deletion of the A.I.

"I'm not letting you do this, you-you bully!" yelled the girl. She glared at her screen and typed more furiously. "You have to go through me before deleting my best friend!"

"Progress at 32%. 65%. 97%."

"Well that's hardly fair," grumbled the Doctor.

"Do we need more time for the virus to infect it?" asked Clara. "Elik says he might be able to do something."

He checked the status of the virus on the TARDIS monitor. "Tell Lancelot that won't be necessary. The virus is in its systems and replicating now." He rushed over to the open TARDIS door. "Oi! Queen bee!"

"Anytime now, Doctor!" said H.E.I.N. He gave a strangled cry, and the nanoids shuddered.

The mass moved freely once again and started crawling its way to the TARDIS. "Reconvening teleportation of the Doctor."

It raced towards him, rising like a wave from the ocean. All he did in response was cross his arms in front of his chest. "I don't think so. Why don't you try diagnosing yourself?!"

The mass slowed and came to a halt. "Alert!" declared the Mainframe. The lights in the room began to flicker. "Malware detected! Systems com- pro- mised!" The Mainframe continued to babble incoherently about viruses and attacks, its voices becoming distorted and tempo of speech slow.

"What's wrong with it?" questioned Adisa the Hermit, looking away from the holographic screen.

The Doctor walked out of the TARDIS. "Your gaming virus has infected the Mainframe. It's losing control of itself."

"I didn't think it could do this much damage," mused the girl, ceasing her typing. She placed the keyboard on the couch and stood up.

"Accessory programs… lost," announced the supercomputer. Nanoids began to fall off of the mass as if it were a serpent shedding its skin. They laid lifeless on the floor upon making contact. "Attempting… system recover-y. Re-co-ver-y… halted. Sys-tem… failure. Memory… memory… me-mo-ry…" The mass writhed once more before collapsing to the floor.

Every electronic in the flat powered down simultaneously, leaving only the hums of the TARDIS and the generator filling the new eerie quiet. The Doctor heard the TARDIS phone cut to the dial tone. He placed the receiver back on the base and shut the front panel.

They stood there for a couple moments in silence. "Is-is it over?" inquired Adisa the Hermit softly.

"Yes," replied the Doctor. "It's done."

 **Please Review!**


	8. Chapter 8

**Alright! Last chapter! Wanted to finish this up before the new series starts on Saturday. Can't wait for it! I hope all of you have enjoyed this story. Thanks once more to everyone who has read it, reviewed it, favorited it, alerted it, etc. I also want to give a shout out to the Run, My Impossible Girl C2. This is the first solo story I've ever written that was added to a community. It really brightened my day! Without further ado, here is the conclusion. Slight spoiler alert for those of you who have not seen The Doctor's Meditation.**

 **Dobby's Imaginary Sock**

 **Chapter Eight:**

 **Going Home**

Adisa the Hermit leaned against the couch, the look on her face forlorn. He'd seen that look on many different faces. It was the confusion over how to adapt to a world now forever changed, the loneliness after losing something or someone important. "What do I do now?" asked the girl, her voice barely above a whisper. "Is there even anything left?"

"There still is a Mainframe, although its capabilities are truncated," he responded. "The TARDIS is functioning as a kind of operating system right now to keep all the necessary functions of the Earth running. I'll have to install some kind of replacement before we leave. The Mainframe can still calculate the answers to large problems, but it cannot act upon them. The virus also deleted its primary objective, so it shouldn't hinder the progress of Earthling society any longer."

"That's good, I guess," mumbled Adisa the Hermit. She looked down at the motionless nanoids and began to sniffle. Rassilon, he cursed to himself, this girl was probably going to cry again. She had good reason to do so, but that still didn't mean that he liked it. The Doctor looked away uncomfortably as Adisa the Hermit broke down. She wrapped her arms around herself and shook as she sobbed. "S-s-sorry! I know I sh-should be happy, and I a-am. It's j-j-just… I-I c-c-c-can't help but t-to miss h-him. H.E.I.N. was always h-here for me, and now he's g-g-gone! I j-just feel so… so… empty! Am I supposed to feel th-this way?"

He supposed that he should say something reassuring. Not that he'd be very good at it. "Your friend is gone," he said, looking over at her. Adisa the Hermit cried harder. "If you didn't feel anything, you'd be a robot. You're going to feel sad and empty whenever you think about him. It's unavoidable. But you can't let it consume you, otherwise everything H.E.I.N. did just now will have been in vain."

Adisa the Hermit wiped at her face. She looked at him with puffy red eyes. The Doctor tried not to grimace and forced himself to keep looking at her. "R-right. Clara is waiting for you. You should go get her."

"I should," agreed the Doctor. It would certainly be more comfortable than this conversation. Still, he shouldn't leave the girl alone. He turned his back to her and walked into the TARDIS. "Clara usually helps me with some of the flight procedures. I'm temporarily short of a copilot. It would be… helpful if someone could assist me until then."

He heard the girl give a sniffle. "I guess I could help," she stated. "As long as you can get me home afterwards."

The Doctor scoffed as he pushed the monitor to the other side of the console. "Of course I can get you home afterwards! I could get you home seconds after we left! It is a time machine." He turned around to face the girl and waved to her. "Come on! A short trip on the TARDIS. Clara will be happy to see you!"

A small smile appeared on her tear-stained face. "O-okay," acquiesced the girl. Adisa the Hermit stepped cautiously inside the TARDIS. She gazed around herself with wide eyes. "This is cool."

"Of course it is!" exclaimed the Doctor smugly. "Now come over here and press this button." The girl did as she was told and the doors swung shut. She gave a little jump. "Good work! I'm going to have to use the telepathic interface to find Clara. Never got that IP address from your friend what's-his-face." He pressed several buttons, turning off the safeguards and nav-com. "Press those blue switches over there. I believe the TARDIS may have turned off the stabilizers earlier."

Adisa the Hermit ran around the console and began pressing the switches. "How many of them?" she questioned.

"All of them," he replied. "Could get a little bumpy otherwise." His last two regenerations might have liked being tossed around like rag dolls, but he thought that not using the stabilizers was idiotic, not to mention undignified.

She wasn't a bad copilot. The girl managed to stay out of the way when he needed her to and follow his instructions to the letter. He supposed that given time she could become a good pilot in her own right. Soon they had landed. The Doctor immediately opened the door.

It was dark wherever they were. "Clara?" he called out. He heard footsteps running towards him and soon she emerged from the darkened hallway.

She ran up to him and gave him a hug. The Doctor was so relieved to see her that he decided to permit it this once. "Doctor! I thought for a moment that you wouldn't find this place!"

"Why wouldn't I find it?!" he sniffed. "Not many things can hide from a TARDIS." He loosened Clara's grip on him and looked her over. "You seem to be alright, but I should run some scans."

Clara rolled her eyes at him. "Never mind me," she replied. She looked behind him at Adisa the Hermit who was intently staring at one of the controls on the TARDIS console. "Is she going to be okay?"

The Doctor shrugged. "In time, perhaps."

"Should we take her somewhere?" questioned his friend, looking at the girl with great concern. "We can't just leave her alone. I don't even know if she can function on her own."

"She asked to go home after we picked you up, so we will take her home," said the Doctor. "She's old enough to look after herself."

"Doctor!" protested Clara, glaring at him.

He turned away from his friend to walk back into the TARDIS. "I'll even let her keep the generator," he said over his shoulder.

Clara followed him into the TARDIS, shaking her head at him. "I can't believe you," she muttered.

The Doctor choose to ignore her disapproval. "So it's home now, correct?" he inquired of Adisa the Hermit.

The girl didn't look up to address him. He cleared his throat, causing the girl to snap out of whatever reverie she was in. "Oh, um, yeah. Home," she responded, pulling on one of the springing coils of her brown hair. "Should I close the doors now?"

"I should think so," stated the Doctor. While the girl walked around the console to do just that, he worked on turning the safeguards and nav-com back on. He then pulled a lever on the console. "Should only take a minute. Push that orange button over there."

"Me?" questioned Clara angrily. She was maintaining her distance from him, a usual tactic of hers to show him her displeasure. No sense of gratitude, that one.

"Not you," he replied with a wave of his hand. "The TARDIS doesn't like it when you drive. With your record you'd probably crash into our Local Hermit's building and take the roof off."

"I would not!" shouted Clara.

"This button?" inquired Adisa the Hermit, pointing to the mentioned button.

"Yes." He heard the TARDIS materialize again. The Doctor pulled one of the monitors over to him. "We're here. Or at least, we should be here. Don't see anything wrong with the readings."

He walked over to the door. When he opened it, he was greeted by the site of the girl's dimly lit flat. Adisa the Hermit walked out past him, Clara close behind her. The second brushed past him, her shoulder colliding roughly with his arm. He rubbed the offended appendage.

"Uh, thanks for the lift," said the girl. She looked down at her toes and began rocking back and forth on her feet. "Your ship is really cool, by the way."

"Don't mention it," he responded. The Doctor was then distracted by a dinging noise from the TARDIS console. He turned to walk over to it.

"Are you sure you want to stay here?" he heard Clara ask the girl quietly. "We could try to find Elik's flat. Or you could come with us. He probably wouldn't say it himself, but I'm sure the Doctor would love to have you come along."

"No thanks," stated Adisa the Hermit. "I-I don't think I'm the travelling type. Not yet, at least. Plus I have my home. It's a bit of a wreck now, but with some work I should be able to fix everything. I could even make it better. It'll keep me busy for some time."

"Okay."

"Are you going to go home now, too?" inquired the girl.

"Home? No, not for me," Clara disagreed with a short laugh, her smile tight.

The Doctor walked back out of the TARDIS and handed the girl her chip. "Your program. Should be the same as before. Made my own copy on the TARDIS. Keep up the good work, and you might just make a proper programmer yet." Adisa the Hermit blushed and mumbled her thanks. "Now before we go, we should turn the power back on for everyone else."

"How are you going to do that?" questioned the girl.

He held up a second chip. "I had the TARDIS work on it while we went to get Clara. It will replace the original operating system on the Mainframe so that things get somewhat back to normal. Well, as normal as can be," he amended. "Does the screen back there have some kind of a port?"

"Yeah, let me show you," responded the girl. She stepped gingerly around all of the nanoids on the ground and led them to the back room. Adisa the Hermit hovered her hand in front of a spot on the wall to the right of the screen. Five dots corresponding to her fingers and thumb lit up, and a slot opened in the wall. The Doctor offered her the chip, which she placed into a port before closing the slot.

After a couple minutes the lights in the flat became brighter, and the rest of the electronics hummed to life. The screen in front of them turned on. In peripherals of his vision he saw both Clara and Adisa the Hermit's jaws drop open.

An image of H.E.I.N. began talking to them. "Hello, Adisa! Hello, Clara and the Doctor! I hope you're all well."

"H.E.I.N.!" cried out the girl. A bright smile spread across her face. "Is it really you?!"

"Yes, it is me," replied the A.I. A confused look spread across his face. "Although, I am a bit confused about what happened to me. I remember fighting the Mainframe and then everything went black. Now I feel like I am much bigger. I am registering multiple IP addresses for my systems."

"Doctor, what is happening?" questioned Clara, still looking gob smacked. "I thought he was dead!"

"Would you look at that?!" exclaimed the Doctor, gesturing at the screen. "The TARDIS must have saved H.E.I.N.'s programming and incorporated him into the operating system."

"The other A.I.s are back online now," added H.E.I.N. with a smile.

"That's great!" The girl touched the screen in front at her. "I'm so glad you're alright!"

"I've never been better!"

"So what are you going to do now?" inquired Clara. "Can you go back into your nanoid body?"

"I think so," responded the A.I. He grinned guiltily. "All of my resistance to the Mainframe fried the electromagnets, so I'll have to wait until Adisa fixes them before really knowing. There's something else I want to try first, though."

He scrunched up his face in concentration. A couple of seconds later the Doctor heard an unlocking sound followed by a thump. Clara walked out of the room to investigate, followed by himself and Adisa the Hermit. The front door lay on the floor of the lounge, its hinges rusted through. Sunlight streamed through the open doorway.

"The door's open!" exclaimed the girl.

"And it's broken," commented the Doctor. "To think that Clara couldn't open this piece of garbage."

"Hey!" shouted his friend. She put her hands on her hips. "You couldn't get it open either, remember?"

"I'll have to see if I have any hinges in storage on the TARDIS," stated the Doctor, avoiding Clara's gaze. He frowned to hide his embarrassment.

"Sorry!" called out H.E.I.N. "I'll have to amend that command before installing it in the other A.I.s. This was an unintended consequence."

The girl walked forward cautiously, stopping just short of the light. "It's so…"

"Amazing?" suggested Clara.

"Typical." countered the Doctor. They both looked at him quizzically. "What? You've seen the sunlight on the Earth one day, you've seen it a thousand times."

"How about you stop talking?" proposed Clara. The Doctor shoved his hands into his pockets.

"You should take a step outside, Adisa," said the A.I. "I bet it's incredible! You'll have to tell me what it looks like."

"I-I don't know…" stammered the girl, inching backwards.

Clara walked up beside her and took the girl's hand. Adisa the Hermit twitched uncomfortably but didn't pull away. "It's okay to be scared. I'll go outside with you. Come on."

The Doctor leaned against the TARDIS and watched the two of them walk slowly out of the open door, the corners of his mouth barely turning up.

OoO

After The Doctor had fixed Adisa's front door, they'd said their farewells to both H.E.I.N. and her. Clara had of course promised that they'd come back to visit, which the Doctor complained about as usual. He'd prattled off a list of suggested improvements to the flat as she dragged him through the TARDIS door. Clara saw the girl wander out into the hallway as they left.

Next they checked on Elik. The Silurian boy appeared to be far more shocked by the appearance of the TARDIS than Adisa had initially been. Both he and H.O.P.E. walked around the exterior and interior several times, neither of them quite believing what they were seeing. Clara laughed, remembering how she'd reacted the first time she'd step foot in the TARDIS. The Doctor acted all grumpy and told her off for making him stop just so Elik and his A.I. could walk around the TARDIS like it was some kind of an exhibit. Even so, he couldn't help but show off a couple things about the TARDIS, so Clara counted this visit as a success. Strangely enough, it turned out that the girl and he had lived in the same building the whole time without ever knowing it. Clara had wanted to take him back to Adisa's flat, but the boy wasn't keen on flying in the TARDIS, so instead they'd just opened his front door so that he could walk there.

Their last stop was to 'her' flat. H.E.R.A. was functioning once again, and Clara didn't think she could bear to leave the A.I. all alone. She'd never exactly like the robot, but she could appreciate how much she cared. The Doctor dropped her off in the building that housed the main processors for the Mainframe so that she could help maintain the supercomputer and act as a failsafe should anything ever go wrong with it again. Clara even humored H.E.R.A. with a hug goodbye and said that _maybe_ she'd drop by again.

Once they were back on the TARDIS and again in the Time Vortex, she turned to look at the Doctor. "It wasn't actually the TARDIS that saved all those A.I.s, was it?" she asked him.

"I don't know what you're talking about," he said offhandedly, turning away from her.

She walked around the TARDIS console to look him in the eye. "Don't deny it," she stated, smiling at him haughtily. "You cared enough about H.E.I.N. and the others that you saved them to the console somehow."

He raised an eyebrow and shrugged. "Take from it what you want. I did only what would help us while maintaining a sense of stability of the society."

Clara shook her head at him. "You can't lie to me about this," she laughed.

The Doctor walked off in the opposite direction, mostly likely to fiddle with some knob while attempting to think up a distraction. She continued chuckling at him and started to descend the stairs. Maybe she would go make herself tea or take a nap.

"Are you going to make that call now?" the Doctor inquired.

"What call?" she asked him, her eyebrows drawing together in confusion. Clara stopped walking down the stairs.

"To your family," he continued, not looking away from the console. "To wish them Happy Christmas and a Holly Jolly New Year or whatever it is you lot say."

She pulled her phone out from her pocket and looked at it. A quick call to her dad telling him that she wouldn't be able to make it to dinner that night was all she needed to do really. He'd probably believe any excuse she threw at him: something had come up, she wasn't feeling up to it, a friend had dropped by to surprise her…

But after everything today, she didn't just want to call him. Calling would be so very easy, but right now all she wanted was to give her dad a hug and her gran a peck on the cheek. Clara noticed the Doctor looking at her impassively, waiting through the silence. "Could you take me home?" she questioned, putting her phone back in her pocket unused. "It would only be for a short while. I know that I could just call them-"

The Doctor smirked. "Go have your little celebration with your family and friends," he replied. He began punching in the coordinates for her place. "Give me a call whenever you're done. Maybe if I'm free I'll drop by."

"Don't say that," she sighed, climbing back up the stairs. Clara leaned against the console. "I know no matter when I'm ready you'll get bored and randomly pop up. Why don't you come with me?"

He snorted. "I think I've already made a fool of myself enough in front of your family." The TARDIS materialized in her flat. "Perhaps some other time. Until later."

Clara walked to the TARDIS door. "Alright. See you soon," she stated. She turned back to look at him, her hand on the handle. "Don't get into too much trouble without me."

The Doctor scoffed and waved a dismissive hand in her direction. "Whatever you say, boss," he grumbled.

She smiled at him before closing the door behind her. The TARDIS dematerialized, leaving her alone. Only, compared to earlier today, she did not feel isolated. She could hear kids playing in the courtyard below, laughing as they ran about on this bright Christmas morning. The floor above her squeaked as the neighbors upstairs went about their holiday festivities. And she knew that a bus ride away was her family preparing for tonight's dinner. Clara took a deep breath and closed her eyes, for once feeling very content in her flat. Sometimes it was good to go home.

OoO

He heard the TARDIS door shut and took the ship back into the Time Vortex. "Try to stay out of trouble. Ha! I can do that… Sometimes I can do that. The problem is that trouble is really a lottery. Very little you can do to affect your chances at winning."

Clara would probably suggest doing something normal like getting coffee or reading a book. He could read a book. Reading was normal without being boring. Unfortunately he'd read every book on the TARDIS at least twice. The Doctor wanted something new. He would have to go get a new book or twelve.

The Doctor started turning some knobs and flicking switches. He didn't want to go to a library. Libraries were too… stifling. A bookshop, though, would be good. There was an excellent one not a stone toss away from the Maldovarium. Well, a stone toss if one were a cosmic giant flinging an asteroid in… some direction. The Doctor was vaguely certain it was north of it, although it could have been east depending on which way said cosmic giant was standing…

He shook his head to clear it. With his destination in mind, the Doctor pushed more buttons on the TARDIS console. The TARDIS accelerated towards what he believed was his destination.

Only when he opened the door did he discover he had been oh so very wrong.

 **And there we have it! The end of the story. Thanks again to everyone who has read it. I hope it lived up to all of your expectations!**

 **It also came to the Polka-Dotted Sock and my attention that this is the one hundredth story on our account! That's crazy! Seems like only yesterday we started this account with the Black Sock. Good times…**

 **Please review!**


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